News Broadcasting
Pakistan, Bangladesh seek more time on b’cast guidelines
NEW DELHI: Amid clouds of not-so-cordial relationship between India and Pakistan overshadowing crucial matters – like formulating model guidelines for transnational satellite broadcasting – prime minister A B Vajpayee today invited the SAARC countries to participate in India’s economy rather than be apprehensive about it.
Pakistan and Bangladesh, however, have sought 45 days time to respond to the draft of a model code for transnational guidelines that has been circulated by India amongst SAARC countries.
Vajpayee was speaking at the inauguration of the third conference of SAARC information ministers here. Vital issues relating to media are slated to be discussed amongst the representatives of the SAARC countries, in the conference.
Pointing out that regional cooperation is a trend in the world which is fast becoming a global village, Vajpayee said, ”It is time we recognise what regional cooperation means for all of us in South Asia. Other alignments will develop to seize the economic opportunities offered by closer integration. We cannot forever be challenging logic and mocking economics.”
Islamabad’s refusal to give its nod to the draft circulated by India on model guidelines on transnational satellite broadcasting in the region, which includes free transmission of television broadcasts among member countries, may force the SAARC information ministers conference to put the issue on the backburner, Economic Times reported today.
Reaffirming India’s commitment to the effort to build on the commonalities of SAARC nations and their shared aspirations for equitable development, Vajpayee ridiculed the argument that the unequal physical sizes and economic strengths of the countries in the region inhibited equal cooperation.
Briefing newspersons on the day’s developments at the SAARC info ministers’ meet, information and broadcasting minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in the evening said that many issues are likely to be resolved.
According to Prasad, it has been urged upon Pakistan and other SAARC countries to have a more relaxed visa regime that would promote freer movements of artistes.
He also said that a proposal to hold SAARC film festival should be taken up by the respective countries’ culture ministry. At present, in many SAARC nations film did not fall under the information and broadcasting ministry’s jurisdiction.
India has been trying to impress upon Pakistan to lift the ban on Indian TV channels and artistes from performing there, though Pakistani artistes are allowed to come to India and not only perform, but also earn a livelihood in our burgeoning entertainment sector. People like Adnan Sami and Zeba Bakhtiar have become an integral part of Bollywood.
However, the Pakistani approach has also caused much heart-burns in the Indian entertainment sector. Some Indian artistes like Abhijeet and Jagjit Singh and filmmakers like Mahesh Bhatt had recently urged the government to ban Pakistani artistes too. The aforementioned trio had also come down some months back to Delhi’s Press Club of India to garner support from the media on the issue.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s information minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed today formally invited Vajpayee for the next SAARC Summit to be held at Islamabad in January even as he called for the resolution of ”basic issues” between
the two countries.
He extended the verbal invitation to Vajpayee soon after the PM inaugurated the SAARC info ministers meet here today.
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.
