News Broadcasting
News Broadcasters Federation condemns attack on TV5
MUMBAI: NBF (News Broadcasters Federation) has condemned the attack by unidentified men on the Hyderabad office of TV5, by damaging equipment and property.
"The attack on TV5 is yet another attempt at using physical violence and threats to try and muzzle the media. NBF strongly condemns this and expects the state government to ensure TV5 is able to continue broadcasting in an environment free of such strong-arm tactics which are anyway bound to fail," said NBF president Arnab Goswami.
TV5 has been at the forefront of reporting the high costs of procurement of Rapid Test Kits (RTE) for testing Covid2019 infection by the Andhra Pradesh government, which forced officials to cancel the contract and save crores of rupees to the public exchequer. More recently, TV5 has been highlighting and raising questions on the negligence that led to the gas leakage at a private chemical factory in Vijayawada.
Across India, broadcasters in all languages are doing non-stop programming with a focus on battling the pandemic and ensuring the success of the nationwide lockdown.
NBF, India’s largest industry association representing the combined interests of TV news channels, expressed concern over the increasing incidents of attacks on media and journalists, while performing their duty during these hard times. In the last few weeks, there have been an increasing number of physical attacks and filing of police cases against TV news channels, and prominent journalists across the country, creating an obstacle against performing their public service, despite the hardships during the lockdown of the country since March 24, 2020, NBF said in a press release.
"Since the nationwide lockdown, at least 24 journalists have been booked under serious charges by the police department in various states. Some journalists have also been physically attacked. Such incidents are highly condemnable and demoralising for the journalists and the news broadcasting media," said NBF secretary-general R Jai Krishna.
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.
