News Broadcasting
If govt. wants ordinance on CAS, it will have to convince President
NEW DELHI: With the adjournment of the Indian Parliament sine die today, the fate of conditional access system becomes that much more nebulous. Though, some government officials told indiantelevision.com this afternoon that the information and broadcasting ministry may take the Ordinance route to bring about the implementation of CAS.
I&B minister Sushma Swaraj had got the cable TV Networks Amendment Bill 2002 first listed in the Rajya Sabha (the Upper House of Parliament) towards the beginning of this session, but had got it delisted as Opposition in the Rajya Sabha had wanted a thorough debate on the issue.
The Lok Sabha (Lower House) has already okayed the amendments to the CATV Act, 1995 through a voice vote which aims at facilitating the implementation of CAS and bring about addressability in Indian cable TV homes.
Government officials said that an Ordinance (an executive order) is a plausibility, but the government has to convince the President that the issue of CAS is of national importance and cannot wait for Parliament to pass it in the winter session. The adjournment of Parliament sine die, ahead of the scheduled date of 14 August, came about as for the past few days no business had been transacted in Parliament with the Opposition in both the Houses resorting to boycott and demanding petroleum minister Ram Naik’s resignation after irregularities in the petrol pumps and kerosene depot allotment came to light sometime back.
Even if the government promulgates an Ordinance on CAS, it has to be okayed by Parliament in the next session or it lapses six months after its promulgation.
But the Ordinance has to wait a little also if that is the route the government opts to take. The President of India is scheduled to tour the state of Gujarat over the next 10 days and may not have time to study the issue immediately.
The broadcasting industry, which was not much in favour of CAS implementation immediately, can breathe easier now, while the cable industry and set-top box manufacturers, pushing for CAS, may have to wait a while.
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.
