News Broadcasting
NDTV moves Delhi HC challenging CBI raids
NEW DELHI: The Prannoy Roy family-promoted NDTV has moved the Delhi High Court challenging the raids conducted by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the residence of its promoters.
In a notice to the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange, the company said, “NDTV and its promoter company filed a writ in the Delhi High Court (on 6 July 2017) challenging the CBI raids and the FIR (first information report) issued by CBI. NDTV is pleased that the court has directed the CBI to submit a status report by 21 September, 2017.”
The publicly traded company, which also at one time had investments from American company GE via a group media company for a venture, further informed the stock markets it would not like to comment on the matter further as it was “now sub- judice”.
In June 2017, the CBI had raided the residence of the Roy family alleging that the promoters and a private company linked to the Roys, RRPR Holding Private Ltd, were involved in defrauding a private sector bank, ICICI Bank, and allegedly causing it losses involving loans extended in 2008.
The raids had come within a few days after a female NDTV news anchor had politely ticked off a belligerent spokesperson from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the lead political party in the NDA government that rules the country, during a TV debate, which had prompted a large section of the Indian society, including the Roys, to dub the raids by federal investigating agency as a “witch hunt” against media not toeing a government-handed political narrative.
Minister for information and broadcasting M. Venkaiah Nadu, however, last month had brushed aside criticism relating to government efforts to muzzle a free media saying the CBI raids and media freedom were two unconnected issues.
For NDTV — considered a sort of media nursery for TV journalism in India after the country allowed in mid-1990s private sector players to enter the business of broadcasting dominated till then by pubcaster Doordarshan and All India Radio — this was not the first brush with controversy. Earlier also unsubstantiated allegations relating to financial misdeeds had been leveled against NDTV and some group companies.
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Update: No politics in raids at NDTV offices, CBI must have received some info, says Naidu
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.
