News Broadcasting
NBA president Rajat Sharma to meet Arun Jaitley, soon
MUMBAI: A few months into the Narendra Modi government and Prakash Javadekar taking charge as the Minister of State (independent charge) of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, a reshuffle has now put Arun Jaitley in charge of the department, in addition to Finance and Corporate Affairs with the MoS charge being given to Col Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.
While Jaitley is someone who has knowledge of the ministry, Rathore is yet to understand the nitty-gritty of it. News Broadcasters Association (NBA) president Rajat Sharma is optimistic about Jaitley handling the portfolio. “NBA welcomes the appointment of Arun Jaitley as I&B Minister. He has a great understanding of the challenges faced and ahead of the broadcasters and I hope that he will play a proactive role in resolving the issues,” he says.
Jaitley has been an advisor to broadcasters in the past and is aware of issues they face such as carriage fees, ad cap, digitisation etc. “The NBA delegation will be meeting Mr Jaitley soon to discuss industry problems,” he adds.
Sharma had earlier mentioned while speaking at indiantelevision.com’s 7th Indian News Television Summit that the NBA would be meeting the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar and the Home Minister Rajnath Singh to place before them, concerns of the news television industry.
Sharma says that it feels good to have ‘industry’s friend’ as a minister of the department.
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.
