News Broadcasting
Govt awaits pay channel prices intimation; Siti, Sony to discuss HITS
NEW DELHI: Even as the broadcasters are still in the process of “making up their minds” — as one of them put it — on the pricing of individual channels, SitiCable and Sony are slated to meet tomorrow to discuss such issues as also whether Sony channels would be available for Zee’s headend in the sky (HITS) project.
According to information available with indiantelevision.com, a senior official from India’s information and broadcasting ministry touched base with some broadcasters on the pricing front today, but did not seem to have got any concrete feedback.
Government sources also indicated that the broadcasters may meet up with ministry officials on Wednesday where it is expected that a pricing strategy may be unveiled.
The problem with the government is that it cannot force the broadcasters to intimate it the prices, as the notification on this clearly states that the cable operators have to display the individual prices of the channels, which means that the broadcasters need to inform the cable ops about the pricing and not the government.
Meanwhile, in tomorrow’s meeting between SitiCable and Sony, it is expected that apart from the pricing issue, the issue of HITS and Sony channels being available on the platform would also be thrashed out.
The presence of non-Zee and Turner channels on the HITS platform is important for the Subhash Chandra company to make the project viable and attractive for cable ops too.
Star India in the past has expressed its unwillingness to decide on joining a HITS platform promoted by Zee, even though SitiCable has claimed that Star has not got back to them after the initial parleys.
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.
