News Broadcasting
HC reserves orders on Kannada Crime Serials
BANGALORE: A division bench of the Karnataka high court, comprising justices A M Farooq and A B Hinchgeri, reserved its orders on Tuesday on a petition filed by city based advocate A. V. Amarnathan on banning two crime TV serials as they might affect judicial process of some trials.
The Karnataka HC had permitted the advocate general to file contempt proceedings against two Kannada crime serials following government counsel contending that the opinions expressed in the serials about the innocence or guilt of the accused in any manner were pre-judicial to the interest of the justice delivery system.
The petion had argued that such serials amounted to holding a parallel trial by the media. Continued telecast of the serials could constitute contempt of court.
Based on the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Amaranthan, the government had also sought a blanket direction to the media not to carry stories in violation of the criminal justice system.
On 12 January, bailable warrants were issued against Udaya TV and its programme Crime Story producer-director Balakrishna Kakatkar, and also against ETV and its programme Crime Diary, which was produced and directed by Ravi Belegere.
As reported by indiantelevision.com earlier, the state government had sought direction from the HC on banning of two serials since they were effecting fair trials of criminal cases, infringing upon the rights of citizens and adversely effecting public interest.
The petiton alleged that the serials were presenting facts even before filing of an first information report (FIR) with the police, recording views of police officers, interviewing criminals, victims and or their next of kin. This, it was pointed out, resulted in a trial by the media, prejudicing and interfering with the judicial proceedings.
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.
