News Broadcasting
Police nab four in piracy case registered by IndiaCast
Mumbai: IndiaCast, through its anti-piracy agency Kamakhya, has registered four First Information Reports (FIRs) at different police stations against the owners of Narnaul Cable Services and Faulad Cable including their operators located in the areas of Bhivadi, Rajasthan.
IndiaCast is a multi-platform content asset monetisation entity jointly owned by TV18 Broadcast Ltd, and Viacom18 Media Private Ltd. It is involved in India distribution, placement services, global channel distribution and advertising sales, digital media distribution, and content syndication for all the group company channels and content.
It initiated the complaint about unlawful and unauthorised dissemination of TV18 and Viacom18 channels in these areas. The complaints have been lodged under Copyright Act 1957 and the Indian Penal Code 1860.
“The police authorities have proactively responded to the complaint and conducted more than six raids at different locations” said the company in a statement.
The police have seized equipment like transmitters and nodes used in the retransmission of signals of various channels in unauthorised areas for public consumption. Following the complaint, police have already arrested four accused in the matter. The accused were denied bail and sent to judicial custody for five days.
“We are grateful to the police officials of Bhivadi for their quick and timely intervention in this endeavour to combat piracy. Pirated content is a growing concern for the media industry as it directly affects not only the broadcaster revenues but also devalues the work put in by the entire content supply chain. IndiaCast along with Viacom18 and the TV18 network will continue to fight market threats associated with piracy and will protect their channel’s content using all legal methods available,” said IndiaCast in a statement.
Recently, Viacom18 had registered an FIR against Thop TV in Maharashtra State Cyber Cell. “Thop TV is alleged to offering pirated broadcast and OTT content to millions of online viewers at discounted prices, which is causing substantial revenue loss to the network. The Maharashtra Cyber Cell has proactively acted on the FIR and arrested the founder and CEO of Thop TV,” it added.
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: 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.
