News Broadcasting
News uplink norms deadline extended further
NEW DELHI: Another extension has been granted to the news channels uplinking from India to conform to the existing guidelines. The new deadline is 31 December.
Though nothing official has been communicated to the industry or to the media, information and broadcasting ministry sources indicated over the weekend that the deadline has been extended, as the ministry has not been able to decide the areas that need some further changes.
Earlier last month, the cabinet had taken a decision to extend the deadline to 31 October.
According to ministry sources, the changes being sought by the ministry include making the Press Information Bureau, a government arm, the nodal agency for vetting all news tapes that are uplinked from India via Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. by the likes of BBC and CNN.
Indian uplinking guidelines do not permit more than 26 per cent foreign investment in news channels that are directly uplinked from India.
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.
