News Broadcasting
Dish media campaign draws flak from cable ops
NEW DELHI: Dish TV’s media campaign revolving round freedom-from-cable-problems theme has incensed a section of cable community, which feels it’s “unethical.”
In a letter e-mailed to Dish TV, All India Aavishkar Dish Antenna Sangh (AIADAS), one of the many bodies representing the cable fraternity, has exhorted the DTH company to withdraw the “misguiding advertisement.”
“The whole cable TV community is shocked on seeing the business-damaging and misguiding advertisement campaign launched by Dish TV through various news papers, hoarding, and bus shelters. This type of advertisement campaign has hurt the cable TV fraternity in India as a whole,” the AIADAS letter states.
The letter further highlights that the latest Dish campaign would severely hurt the business of cable operators; almost to the extent of crushing them out.
“In case the (cable) consumer shifts (to DTH), who is going to pay compensation to the cable TV operator?” Dr. AK Rastogi, head of AIADAS, has asked in the letter.
Though Rastogi claimed that Dish has agreed to withdraw the damaging ad campaign in deference to the cable industry’s anguish, Dish TV CEO Sunil Khanna denied any such move.
“We are not withdrawing any campaign, nor altering it,” Khanna told Indiantelevision.com today afternoon.
He added that instead of being cry babies, cable operators should seize this opportunity to digitize their networks and offer consumers better services than before.
“With competition around in DTH sphere, there is bound to be consumer awareness campaigns highlighting the advantages of a DTH service. The cable operators should brace themselves for reality,” Khanna said.
News Broadcasting
News TV viewership jumps 33 per cent as West Asia war draws audiences
BARC Week 8 data shows news share rising to 8 per cent despite T20 World Cup
NEW DELHI: Even as individual television news channel ratings remain under a temporary pause, the genre itself is seeing a clear surge in audience attention.
According to the latest data from Broadcast Audience Research Council India, television news recorded a 33 per cent jump in genre share in Week 8 of 2026, covering February 28 to March 6.
The news genre accounted for 8 per cent of total television viewership during the week, up from 6 per cent the previous week. The spike in attention coincided with escalating geopolitical tensions involving the United States, Israel and Iran, which have kept global headlines firmly fixed on West Asia.
The rise is notable because it came at a time when cricket was dominating television screens. The high-stakes stages of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, including the Super 8 fixtures and semi-finals, were being broadcast during the same period.
Despite the cricket frenzy, viewers appeared to be toggling between sport and global affairs, boosting the overall share of news programming.
The surge in genre share comes even as the government has enforced a one-month pause on publishing ratings for individual news channels. The move followed regulatory scrutiny of the television ratings ecosystem.
While channel-level rankings remain temporarily out of sight, the genre-level data suggests that when global tensions escalate, audiences continue to turn to television news for real-time updates.
