News Broadcasting
Rural development ministry seeks independent producers for promoting schemes
The ministry of rural development plans to rope in independent TV and radio producers to promote its schemes in the interior of the country.
The ministry has invited applications from TV and radio producers for undertaking production of audiovisual software to create awareness about its schemes in the rural parts of the country. The ministry is planning to commission several films, spots, serials, jingles and other motivational, instructional and promotional material in Hindi, English and regional languages.
For television software producers, the ministry expects a minimum five years of experience of handling TV programmes, both with pubcaster Prasar Bharati and satellite channels. Producers vying for the job should boast a minimum annual production turnover of Rs 50 million, have dealt with similar social content of other ministries and should have the capacity to create multi-media programming with in house infrastructure.
Radio software producers have to cough up proof of a minimum annual turnover of Rs 4 million, a fully digital audio studio with digital recording and mixing facilities.
The last date for submitting applications to the DDO, ministry of rural development, New Delhi is 3 May, while the last date for collecting the application forms is 26 April. The ministry will select the producers from a conceptual bid of shortlisted firms.
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.
