News Broadcasting
Producers form joint action committee to fight unfair labour practices
Mumbai: The associations of content producers have come together to form an action committee called Media & Entertainment Producers Coordination Committee (MEPCC) to tackle unfair labour practices and issue guidelines to producers.
The Indian Motion Picture Producer’s Association (IMPPA), Indian Film and TV Producers Council (IFTPC), Western India Film Producer’s Association (WIFPA), The Association of Advertising Producers (ASAP), and Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Chitrapat Mahamandal (ABMCM) have come under one umbrella and formed the action committee to ensure compliance with directions of Competition Commission of India (CCI) and Labour Commissioner.
The producers’ primary grievances are the unfair labour practices and extortion under different garbs from the trade unions. It has barred trade union’s vigilance officers from visiting shooting locations under any circumstances.
“The joint action committee will ensure full protection and security of all producers who make entertainment content. In case these producers face a disturbance in the work or shooting by trade unions, they have been advised to immediately file a police complaint in the nearest police station and also inform their association so that immediate action can be initiated against parties indulging in unfair labour practices,” it said in a statement.
“The committee will also launch a new method of recruitment and selection of workers which will be unveiled soon,” 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.
