News Broadcasting
I&B jt secretary Rakesh Mohan dissatisfied with CAS preparations in Mumbai
MUMBAI: He came, he saw, he was not happy with what he saw.
That reportedly sums up what was the feeling that information and broadcasting joint secretary Rakesh Mohan carried back with him to his bosses in Mandi House at the end of a two-day “reconnaisance” trip to Mumbai to ascertain ground realities and check the preparedness of the multi-system operators (MSOs) and cable operators to usher in the post-14 July era of the conditional access system (CAS).
Mohan met the representatives of several MSOs and also had discussions with Mumbai based cable operators. Sources indicate that Mohan had expressed disappointment with the current state of affairs wherein certain MSOs didn’t have CAS headends in place; others had ground connectivity problems; still others have got into a stalemate situation with distributors as they tried to woo franchisees directly.
Certain MSOs reportedly argued that they had initiated certain measures but the lack of clarity on the pricing issue (broadcasters not declaring individual pay channel prices) and hassles related to imports/manufacture of set top boxes had slowed down the process and made them cautious. They expressed a viewpoint that MSOs were caught in a trap between the broadcasters and the cable operators.
Another major issue relates to the fact that the government task force seems to be oblivious of the concerns of the Mumbai based cable operators.
Sonali Cable proprietor and WIN Cable distributor Suvarna G Amonkar, who met Mohan, expressed surprise over the joint secretary’s contention that the concerns of Mumbai’s cable operators hasn’t reached the government. “Mumbai based cable operators didn’t have any representation on the CAS task force till the I&B minister appointed Shekhar Joshi of Cable Vision recently. The earlier representative of cable operators in the task force didn’t raise his voice and merely toed the line of the MSOs.”
All eyes now on the scheduled meetings between the I&B ministry and the broadcasters/MSOs/cable operators scheduled for early next week.
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.
