News Broadcasting
NY court rules Modi case on ESS admissable; 1st hearing 26 Jan
MUMBAI: One thing you have to give to Modi Enterprises – they set great store by the judiciary in dealing with distribution disputes.
Modi, which had filed a case against ESPN Inc and ESPN India for breach of contract and fiduciary duties in a New York Court has crossed the first hurdle following the order given by Judge Gammerman on 16 January allowing the case to proceed. ESPN had sought the dismissal of the case made against the sports broadcaster.
It’s been a long and winding road for the Modis in this case which is a fallout of ESPN’s decision to terminate its distribution deal with the company in 1999.
A statement issued by Modis quotes Judge Gammerman as ruling:
v All excepting one small claim of the Modis is within time and not barred by the Indian Law of Limitation.
v New York Law would be applied whilst adjudicating on the breach of contract claims and the tort claims.
v In India, the Supreme Court of India would have recognized all claims made in the action.
v Punitive damages would be awardable in this action.
The Judge has also ruled that punitive damages may be allowed especially in view of the evidence supporting the conclusion that ESPN intentionally and fraudulently misused their contractual audit rights to force MEN to divulge their confidential information and thereafter used such information wrongly.
The case comes up for its first hearing on 26 January, industry sources say.
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.
