News Broadcasting
Limited punitive action taken against 31 TV channels in 11 years
NEW DELHI: As many as 31 TV channels were asked to stop transmission for specific period of time ranging from one day to 60 days including news channel for 30 days between 2005 and 2016.
Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Ministry Rajyavardhan Rathore told the Parliament that 22 private television channels including one channel for three different programmes and another for two programmes were asked to suspend transmission for duration ranging from one day to 30 days for telecasting content in violation of the Programme Code during the last three years and the current year.
This included 14 in 2013, one in 2014, four in 2015, and three in 2016 (till November), Rathore said.
The three in the current year are — NDTV India and Care World India with one violation each, and News Time Assam for three violations. The orders relating to NDTV and Care World India have been challenged in the courts of law. Earlier, in 2014, Manoranjan TV was punished twice.
The channels punished in 2014 and 2015 are — Enterr 10, Zing, Mahua, SS TV, AXN, FTV, Movies OK, Comedy Central, Zoom TV, ABN Andhra Jyoti, UTV Bindass, WB, NTV, Big CBS Love, Jai Hind, Al Jazeera, and Satlon News.
Action is taken against TV channels whenever any violation of the Programme and Advertising Codes is noticed or brought to the notice of the Ministry. The Ministry generally issues warnings or advisories to comply with the Codes or asks the channels to run an apology scroll on their channel.
But, Rathore said the channels are occasionally taken off air temporarily for a limited period depending on the gravity of the violation.
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.
