News Broadcasting
Govt. not to alter existing FDI norms for media sector
NEW DELHI: The present government will not roll back any foreign investment norms in the media sector, including those changes brought about by the previous Bharatiya Janata party-led government.
Asked whether the present government is contemplating revisiting certain media guidelines, especially in the light of the International Herald Tribune case, a senior information and broadcasting ministry official said, “Why should we revisit (media) rules and guidelines?”
Allaying fears on investment norms in the media sector becoming more stringent, the official said there was no need for that. “After all, those norms (like 26 per cent foreign investment being allowed in the print medium) have been debated. There would be no rollback.”
However, the official added that the government also would not rush into accepting or introducing new norms for those sectors where foreign investments are not allowed in the media. This was said in relation to a query on whether the government would allow foreign investment in private FM radio ventures too.
Meanwhile, the official clarified that neither I&B minister Jaipal
Reddy nor the ministry has any proposal to levy a cess on radio and TV sets sold in the country to generate additional funds for pubcasters, Doordarshan and All India Radio.
“What the minister said was that amongst the many options that are there to increase revenue for the pubcaster, cess is one of them. Such academic discussions do not mean that the government would actually go ahead and do it, though in the UK, BBC is partly like this,” the official elaborated.
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.
