News Broadcasting
Final okay awaited as ETC earmarks land in Khopoli for teleport
ETC Networks Ltd, the first channel to secure clearance to build a commercial teleport in Mumbai, is now looking to set up its uplinking facility in adjoining Raigad district’s industrial town of Khopoli.
Jagjit Singh Kohli, managing director and one of the promoters of ETC, said ETC had signed a deal to provide uplink facilities for the Thailand-based Shin Satellite Public Company Limited which runs the Thaicom satellite systems.
Once the teleport is commissioned it is expected to reduce the operating costs of the channel and also provide additional revenue streams for the company by offering uplink services to other private channels and Internet service providers.
Industry sources, however, indicate that work has still to start on the 30 acres of land acquired for the purpose as a “technical clearance” is still awaited from the Maharashtra state government.
Close to Rs 18.6 million has been put aside for establishing uplinking facilities. The teleport is expected to be up and running within this financial year, and ETC is confident that it would also be generating revenue from Day 1, Neelam Gupta, head corporate communications, has told indiantelevision.com in an earlier response to queries.
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.
