News Broadcasting
Scientific-Atlanta, Pioneer win Gemstar suit
ATLANTA: Cable set-top box maker Scientific-Atlanta announced that the US International Trade Commission has ruled in its favour in a suit by Gemstar-TV Guide International brought against it, Pioneer Corporation and related entities, EchoStar Communications and SCI Systems.
Gemstar had sued the two companies alleging that their set-top boxes infringed on Gemstar’s patents for interactive programming guides for television. In his initial deposition Judge Luckern found that the respondents do not infringe Gemstar’s patents and that one of Gemstar’s patents was unenforceable for failure to name a co-inventor. Judge Luckern also found that Gemstar had engaged in patent misuse, a company release states.
In its decision, the ITC determined not to review any issues regarding patent infringement or co-inventorship. By declining to review those issues, the ITC adopts the findings of the Initial Determination that S-A’s products do not infringe the patents in issue. The ITC determined to take no position on the issue of Gemstar’s patent misuse. In light of these determinations, the Commission has concluded that there is no violation of section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 by Scientific-Atlanta, the release says.
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.
