News Broadcasting
Government warns of stiff action against erring TV channels
NEW DELHI: Even as the AXN channel has been allowed to resume telecasts in India following an apology, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has expressed its unhappiness at the fact that the channel should have ignored warnings about its content.
Sources in the ministry tell Indiantelevision.com that the channel, which was banned on 17 January for two months (till 15 March), “did not even acknowledge the notices of the ministry in this regard, leave aside responding to them.” AXN had been banned for telecasting programmes like The World’s Sexiest Advertisements, which the ministry felt “were against good taste or decency and were likely to adversely affect public morality.”
I&B Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi had said recently that the government was concerned about the content being aired on electronic media and has warned of suitable action in case of violations of the Cable Television Network (Regulation) Act 1995.
He had noted that some of the programmes being telecast on TV on different channels had poor quality content and women were depicted in a degrading fashion in advertisements etc. “We have to be very tough in this regard,” he had noted. Though he did not name any channels, it is learnt that they included FTV and Zee Café, apart from AXN.
The ban order under Section 20(2) of the Act was lifted in view of the assurance by AXN that it would put in place a more effective self regulatory mechanism to ensure that the programmes and the advertisements telecast on the channel are in compliance with the Act.
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.
