News Broadcasting
NDTV, Reliance’s Rafale case to be heard on 22 November
MUMBAI: NDTV has challenged the jurisdiction of the Ahmedabad court where Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group sued the news broadcaster for Rs 10,000 crores over the Rafale fighter jet deal and the next hearing will be on 22 November 2018. The first hearing was on 26 October. The lawsuit is filed against NDTV's weekly show, Truth vs Hype, which aired on 29 September.
According to NDTV, “The role of Reliance appeared to have been questioned by none other than Francois Hollande, who was the president of France when the deal was struck. The NDTV show reported all sides of the story including Dassault's denial that it had been under any pressure to select Reliance. The panellists, in a balanced discussion, examined whether issues like Reliance's vast debt and record in defence manufacturing made it a suitable choice for Dassault in India.”
NDTV Group CEO Suparna Singh tweeted on 26 October, “NDTV challenges jurisdiction of Ahmedabad court where Anil Ambani’s Reliance group sued us for Rs 10,000 crores over our Rafale deal coverage, next hearing on Nov 22.”
Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group has filed a defamation suit of Rs 7,000 crore against founder and editor of ‘The Citizen’, Seema Mustafa, for its reportage on the defence deal and Rs 5,000 crore against National Herald in September, saying that one of its published articles on the Rafale deal was “libellous and derogatory”.
Also, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had issued a show cause notice to NDTV in connection with a case of forex violation it is probing against the media company on 17 October 2018. The notice has been issued for violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) to the tune of Rs 4,000 crore.
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.
