News Broadcasting
NDTV India reverts to pay channel from FTA
MUMBAI: NDTV has decided to convert its free to air (FTA) channel NDTV India as a pay channel with effect from 15 September. On 8 April 2016, NDTV India, the Hindi news channel, started its FTA journey. Prior to that, the channel was a paid service priced at Rs 3.37 on direct-to-home (DTH) and addressable platforms.
The channel will be priced at Rs 0.85 for addressable platforms.
A public notice issued by NDTV stated, “This is to inform viewers of NDTV that its channel NDTV India (Hindi language news channel) which is a free to air channel in India would be a pay channel across all platforms effective midnight of 15 September 2018.”
In FY17, NDTV’s subscription revenue stood at Rs 42.1 crore compared to Rs 42.5 crore in the previous fiscal. The subscription revenue comprised 11 per cent of the company’s total revenue during the fiscal year.
NDTV India was following a trend in the market when it made the decision to go FTA. After NDTV India’s decision to go FTA, Zee News and News18 India (earlier IBN7) had also gone FTA in the same year.
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.
