News Broadcasting
SC stays Assam order cancelling NE TV accreditation for National Games
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today stayed the order of the Assam Government cancelling the accreditation cards of North-East Television, thereby preventing it from covering the 33rd National Games starting today in Guwahati.
A bench comprising Justices KG Balakrishnan and PK Jain stayed the operation of the impugned order dated 6 February, thereby permitting the petitioner television channel to cover the National Games, inaugurated by Congress President Sonia Gandhi this afternoon.
Senior Counsel Harish Salve, appearing for the petitioner, alleged the order has been passed as the channel has exposed the killing of innocent persons by militant organisations like the United Liberation Front of Assom and others in various places of the North-East and said the state government’s action amounted to violation of freedom of speech.
The television network, which telecasts in eight languages spoken in all the states of the Northeast, said the NE TV has always highlighted issues related to national security and sovereignty.
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.
