News Broadcasting
Government plans 1-year uplink licence for foreign news channels
NEW DELHI: As part of the revised uplinking policy, the Indian government has proposed that all foreign news channels like CNN and BBC seeking temporary uplink permission from time to time would be granted such okay on a long term basis, subject to certian riders.
A senior information and broadcasting ministry official said today that all foreign channels can get uplink permission for a year, provided they have a long-term agreement with a local teleport here, which will be needed to keep records of matter uplinked for at least three months.
Foreign channels like CNN, BBC, Japan’s NHK, Deutsche Welle had petitioned the government that every time there was a major event in India, temporary uplink permission had to be sought from the government, which was a cumbersome process.
The uplink policy, which has ben sent to the Cabinet for clearance, also seeks to put a registration fee of Rs 500,000 on all channels uplinking out of India as one time fee. The annual reneweal fee would be Rs 100,000.
The donwlink policy, which seeks to give the government more control over channels beaming into India from outside, is still being fine tuned by the ministry and is expected to go for Cabinet clearance in “about a week’s time.”
As reported by Indiantelevision.com earlier, the government official admitted that the downlink policy would seek registration of all TV channels in India so as to bring them under the ambit of Indian rules and regulations.
Meanwhile, I&B minister Jaipal Reddy today announced that pubcaster Doordarshan will start an Urdu channel at a total cost of approximately Rs 670 million. For this channel, the government would extend financial aid of Rs 200 million during this financial year.
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.
