News Broadcasting
Kamal Khan gets a breather on his comments on YouTube
NEW DELHI: A Lucknow court has dismissed the petition filed by UP cadre IPS officer Amitabh Thakur for wanting to file a first information report against producer-actor-director Kamal R Khan with regard to alleged remarks against two scheduled castes in a comment about the film Raanjhana.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Manish dismissed the petition alleging the objectionable criminal comments were made in a Video on YouTube. The petition was filed after the police refused to register an FIR. Thakur had given an FIR to Gomtinagar police station, Lucknow and SSP, Lucknow saying that Khan’s comments are clearly casteist in nature and constitute an offence under section 3(1)(x) of the SC, ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989.
The ACJM said that an offence under the SC/ST Act is made only when it is aimed at a particular individual which is not the case here, and so no cognizable offence is being made.
In the 09.40 minute video review uploaded on YouTube on 20 June, Khan said: “Sir, I don’t know whether you are from UP or not, but I am. In the whole of UP, you will find cobblers and sweepers who look like Dhanush but you will not find such single rotten Brahman as him in entire UP.” He also made some other extremely improper personal comments against the actor Dhanush.
Khan has earlier invited controversies with his film Desh Drohi and his presence in Bigg Biss 3, is once again in trouble.
In his very first film Desh Drohi, Khan indirectly referred to the Shiv Sena through his dialogue “Jitni nafrat humhare liye tumhare dil main hain , usse zyada pyar tumhare liye humare seene main hain. Kabhi UP Bihar aake dekhna, mehman ko bhagwan samajhte hain hum.”
This resulted in the film being banned in Mumbai for two months.
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.
