News Broadcasting
IBF exhorts govt to remove service, fringe benefit taxes
NEW DELHI: The Indian Broadcasting Foundation has petitioned the government to remove the disparity between the electronic and print media by seeking exemption from service tax on advertising revenue.
In its pre-Budget memorandum to the finance ministry, the IBF has said an advertisement attracts service tax while being broadcast, but is exempted when appearing in print press.
Thus it makes advertisements 12.25 per cent costlier in the electronic media, distorting the level playing field between various media, the IBF memo states.
The IBF, founded in 1999, is the largest national organization of television broadcasters. Its membership extends to 30 major broadcasters, which make available more than 130 TV channels to millions of Indian homes.
In order to achieve targets for digitalization during the first phase (2006 to 2010), as mandated by the sector regulator, the customs and excise duties on all sector-related equipment should be kept at zero for the next five years.
IBF has exhorted the finance minister to reduce customs duty of set top boxes (STBs), used in addressable system, to zero for at least another five years to ensure that boxes could be made available to customers at affordable prices.
Joining issues with many other industries, IBF has said that keeping in view the special characteristics and role in sub-serving the fundamental right of receiving and dissemination information, the fringe benefit tax (FBT) should not be imposed on the electronic and print media.
It has argued that if the government wishes to levy FBT, then it should be categorized along with five other industries, including infotech, where the tax concerned has a low base of five per cent.
Some other demands of the IBF are following:
# Inclusion of the cable & broadcasting industry under section 72 A of the Income Tax Act, which provides incentive for takeover /amalgamation by robust companies.
# Direction to government field officers to accept service tax on subscription revenue (introduced in June 2005) on the basis of the list of cable operators having a turnover of more than Rs. 400,000, since those with lesser turnover have been exempted by the government.
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.
