News Broadcasting
Government open to more TRP measurement agencies: Dasmunshi
NEW DELHI: After having played the third umpire in the cricket telecast issue vis-?-vis Indian pubcaster, the government is now stirring up the ratings issue by saying today it’s open to the idea of allowing other players also to get into the act of measuring viewership and viewing patterns in Indian TV homes.
Information and broadcasting minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi told Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament) today that when TRP started in 2000 only TAM, which has an arrangement with an American company, came forward with some credibility.
But his ministry was now open to the idea of ensuring more coverage and allowing more sample surveys to make TRPs a complete exercise, Press Trust of India quoted the minister as having said in Parliament.
Allaying fears of members that TAM had commercial interest as also the private TV companies, which at times “manipulate” data to get large chunk of an estimated Rs 50 billion advertisement revenue, Dasmunshi said DD’s terrestrial network had the highest rating and its commercial revenue was continuously going up.
“We are not suffering in advertisement. We are also incurring profit,” he said, but admitted that in terms of satellite and cable TV networking DD News was lagging behind some of the private channels.
In this context, the minister announced that a major upgradation and technology improvement programme was underway to ensure that the quality of DD reception at homes was as good as its competitors.
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.
