News Broadcasting
Kerala HC upholds ban on Malayalam channel MediaOne
Mumbai: The Kerala high court has dismissed the appeal by Malayalam news channel against the single judge order upholding the recent ban imposed on it by the ministry of information and broadcasting citing security concerns.
A division bench of chief justice S Manikumar and justice Shaji P Chaly upheld the order passed by the ministry of information and broadcasting refusing the broadcast license granted to MediaOne. “We have perused the confidential files and we are convinced that there is threat to national security,” said the bench while pronouncing the verdict.
Madhyamam Broadcasting Limited which operates the channel MediaOne had applied for renewal of permission on 3 May 2021 and was denied security clearance by the ministry of home affairs. Subsequently, the ministry of information and broadcasting revoked the company’s license to uplink and downlink Malayalam news channel MediaOne on 31 January citing security concerns.
As per the I&B ministry’s order, clause 9.2 of the uplinking guidelines stipulates that security clearance of a company and its directors is a prerequisite condition for grant of permission for TV channels.
In addition to the channel, appeals were also filed by its employees including its editor against the I&B ministry’s decision which were also rejected by a single judge on 8 February.
This is the second time that the channel has been barred from airing. In March 2020, Asianet News and MediaOne TV had been barred for 48 hours by I&B ministry citing security concerns.
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: 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.
