News Broadcasting
MagnaQuest to manage post-CAS operations of BroadBand Pacenet
MUMBAI: Global Customer Management & Billing (CM&B) solutions provider MagnaQuest Solution has been chosen to provide its subscriber management system (SMS), MQSubscribe, to BroadBand Pacenet.
MagnaQuest Solutions delivers solutions to organisations providing data, video and content services.
BroadBand Pacenet is a newly formed multi-system operator (MSO) set up by the promoters of Win Cable (now a 100 per cent subsidiary of Rajen Raheja’s Hathway cable and Datacom). It plans launching Pay TV services initially on the terrestrial platform and later on moving to the HITS platform as and when the regulatory environment is clear.
Director, BroadBand Pacenet Jagjit Singh Kohli said, “We will stand out in the market place in the post-CAS regime after 15 July, with our open CAS initiative and the indigenously designed set top box. By selecting a competitive domestic SMS solution provider, MagnaQuest, who understand the Indian pay TV scenario and have a global quality solution, we are confident of receiving good support.”
BroadBand Pacenet CEO S Ravindran said, “Secura – our Open CAS system is based on international security standards such as DES, AES and RSA – which coupled with Home Genie, our set top box, brings affordable yet safe programming to the subscriber. We also look to MagnaQuest to supplement our efforts in our Payment Gateway initiative with their proven expertise in system integration and smart-card based applications as well.”
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.
