News Broadcasting
Motorola, Scientific Atlanta sign up for CableLabs’ OpenCable project
Leading set top manufacturers, including Scientific Atlanta and Motorola, have signed CableLabs’ POD-Host Interface License Agreement (PHILA) over the last two weeks.
The PHILA is a portion of the CableLabs OpenCable project; companies that sign the accord receive a license to deploy proprietary technology necessary to manufacture OpenCable set tops. CableLabs recently told the Federal Communications Commission that the three companies who have signed the PHILA are Pace Micro Technology PLC, Motorola Broadband Communications sector and Scientific Atlanta.
According to CableLabs, the agreement focuses on the copy protection technology of the connecting point between an OpenCable point-of-deployment (POD) card and the OpenCable set-top box. This interface is the link that allows a retail cable box to be portable across a variety of different cable system headends by standardizing the communication between individual addressable POD modules and the connected set-top terminals or navigation devices.
CableLabs is a research and development consortium of cable television system operators representing the continents of North America and South America. The company also plans and funds research and development projects that help cable companies take advantage of future opportunities and meet future challenges in the cable television industry.
CableLabs president and CEO Dr Richard Green says : “Having three large consumer electronics manufacturers show their interest in making OpenCable boxes by signing the PHILA validates the cable industry’s commitment to this advanced digital service provisioning platform.”
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.
