News Broadcasting
SC to hear Raj TV case on 10 December
MUMBAI: A division bench of the Supreme Court will again hear Raj TV’s petition against the I&B ministry’s order cancelling the network’s uplinking licence on 10 December.
The court battle between the communication ministry and the Raj TV network started with the ministry revoking the licence given to Raj TV since the network had been telecasting two channels – Vissa and Raj Musix- for over a year without valid licence or permission.
This was being done at a time when the licence granted was valid for Raj TV and Raj Digital Plus only.
Another serious charge made by the ministry against the network was the non-renewal of its licence. The network had continued to telecast its channels without renewing the licence even after it had expired in September 2003.
On 8 November, a division bench of Madras High Court had terminated the network’s licence before granting it ten days’ time to fulfill its Diwali programming obligations.
The network, meanwhile, moved the SC, filing a special petition and stay application against the Madras High Court order.
But on 17 November, the apex court upheld the decision of communication ministry to cancel the network’s uplinking licence, which forced the channel to shift its uplinking from the Chennai teleport to Bangkok on 18 November.
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.
