News Broadcasting
Indian football stars to protest against Doordarshan
KOLKATA: The Indian football fraternity is planning to protest against the state-owned Doordarshan television channel’s alleged apathy towards the game and want live coverage of India’s upcoming pre-World Cup matches.
Dozens of footballers, coaches, sports journalists and soccer lovers are expected to stage a protest outside the Doordarshan office, on Monday 23 February 2004, in support of their demand.
India’s public broadcaster failed to telecast the Asian zone qualifying round for the 2006 World Cup in Germany Wednesday when India beat Singapore by a solitary goal in Goa.
East Bengal football club’s coach Subash Bhowmick and former footballer Surajit Sengupta are the prime movers of the planned demonstration.
“Whether this was due to administrative failure or disinterest in football, neither is desirable in the interest of the game,” said Sengupta.
“So it becomes important that football lovers voice the concern against this attitude,” added Bhowmick.
“We hope all lovers of football will turn up in front of the Doordarshan office to take part in the demonstration,” Sengupta said.
Protestors will sit silently in front of Doordarshan office holding placards that will carry messages urging the electronic media to provide better coverage of football.
“Doordarshan has a dedicated sports channel. So, what’s the problem in telecasting such important matches as India’s pre-World Cup games?” asked Mohun Bagan coach Aloke Mukherjee.
The football fraternity is angry that television channels were eager to telecast live even the under-19 years’ cricket matches but not India’s soccer World Cup campaign.
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.
