News Broadcasting
ESPN wins Delhi court ruling; Home Cable told to pay up
Delhi’s district court today ruled in favour of ESPN Software India Ltd in a case filed by Home Cable Network Ltd. ESPN Software India Ltd. had switched off the ESPN and STAR Sports services to the Delhi-based Home Cable Network last Friday on account of the unauthorised distribution of channels by Home Cable Network to hotels and the non-payment of monthly dues to ESPN Software.
The court summoned the managing director of Home Cable Network Ltd. Vikki Choudhary today and ordered him to give an undertaking to the court that he would stop the unauthorised distribution of ESPN, STAR Sports signals to hotels with immediate effect.
An ESPN Software India spokesperson said: It had come to our notice that Home Cable Network is involved in the unauthorised distribution of ESPN and STAR Sports signals to some hotels in the area. This is clearly in violation of the contractual agreement signed by Home Cable Network.
Home Cable also cleared all outstanding dues to ESPN Software India in the court itself. The ESPN and STAR Sports feeds had been switched off following the non-payment of October dues by the cable network.
The issue first came to the fore after ESPN Software India and Arjun Enterprises, which distributes ESPN and Star Sports, were ordered to appear in court yesterday after Home Cable filed a case demanding the feed be restored.
The case was originally slated to come up for hearing yesterday.
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:Â 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.
