News Broadcasting
I&B puts out CAS FAQs in leading dailies
MUMBAI: With the countdown to the conditional access rollout deadline well and truely on, the information and broadcast ministry is attempting to “educate” the public on CAS.
Big spread ads appeared today in all the mainline dailies listing frequently asked questions and common curiosities about CAS.
This is the first time that the ministry has issued a list of answers to 16 frequently asked questions simultaneously, including an interesting one – Is CAS a ‘crack pot’ scheme by the government?
With the help of the questionnaire, the ministry aims to inform the public about various aspects of CAS, including the difference between FTA and pay channels, whether it is necessary to buy a set top box (STB) and how much one needs to pay for the STB. The FAQs also inform the public about their rights as consumers and where to go in case they are hassled.
The I&B ministry also aims to dispel few rumours including the issues about substandard STBs or increase in the monthly bills post CAS or government acting as a big brother.
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.
