News Broadcasting
Prasar Bharati’s grants-in-aid slashed marginally
NEW DELHI: In a surprising move, the grants-in-aid to Prasar Bharati, which manages India’s pubcasters Doordarshan and All India Radio, has been shaved off marginally, though the realisation by the organisation of previous year’s help had been more than 100 per cent.
In the budgetary proposals for financial year 2004-05, the government dole to Prasar Bharati stands at Rs 9.75 billion (975.26 crore), while last year it was Rs 10.06 million (1005.64 crore).
However, the slashing of the grant-in-aid has been seemingly offset by an increase in the plan outlay for Prasar Bharati to Rs 4,800 million for the current year from Rs. 4,150 million. This indicates that money has been sanctioned for some ongoing projects, as also expansion.
The grants-in-aid to Prasar Bharati is given by the governmenmt to cover the gap in resources of the organisation in meeting its revenue expenditure.
Loans extended to Prasar Bharati, also, has shown an increase to Rs 1.69 million (169.50 crore) from Rs 1.66 million (166 crore). The government loan is provided so that Prasar Bharati can meet its needs to finance capital expenditure.
However, the impact of today’s budgetary proposals on Doordarshan’s plans to start a KU-band DTH service could not be immediately ascertained as Prasar Bharati officials were not available for comments.
Meanwhile, the annual budgetary allocation for the information and broadcasting ministry has gone up marginally to Rs 15.14 million (1514.17 crore) from Rs 15.12 million (1512.12 crore).
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.
