News Broadcasting
NBA seeks remedy from new I&B Minister
MUMBAI: With the new Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Minister Prakash Javadekar taking charge of changing the way the Ministry works in the country, the entire media fraternity is keen to meet him and make him aware of the issues concerning them.
The latest in the queue to meet the Minister is the News Broadcasters Association (NBA), a body that represents various national and regional news channels of the country. The group included NBA president and NDTV executive vice chairperson KVL Narayan Rao, vice president and MCCS CEO Ashok Venkatramani, India TV chairman Rajat Sharma, Zee Media group CEO Bhaskar Das and India Today group CEO Ashish Bagga.
The main issues that were put forth were regarding carriage fees and the ad cap. “These are huge problem areas that need to be addressed because all news broadcasters are adversely affected. The minister has said that he would do whatever he can about our problems,” says a source.
The NBA had challenged the ad cap regulation by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in TDSAT which was then taken to the Delhi High Court where it is currently pending trial. News broadcasters say that they have been severely affected due to carriage fees.
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.
