News Broadcasting
Sify slashes international call rates to the US
BANGALORE: Sify Ltd has announced the new rates for international calls using its Sify talk services in Mumbai and other metros around the country.
As per the revised package, calls are priced at Rs 2.99 to USA, UK and Canada, RS 4.55 for calls made to Rest of Europe, Hong Kong and Singapore, RS 6.35 for calls made to Japan, China, South Korea and Indonesia, RS 6.35 for calls made to New Zealand, Australia and Saudi Arabia, RS 8.12 to Iran, Kuwait and RS 11.80 to UAE, respectively, says a company release.
Sify LTD president Access Media Shrikant Joshi said, “Sify was the first to launch high quality Net telephony in India with the prime objective of making international calls affordable for users. The new rates are in keeping with this objective, with rates as low as RS 2.99 to the USA, UK and Canada!”
The Sify Talk international call service, available at Sify I-Way cyber cafes and the recently-launched Sify Telecentres, offers quality international voice calls to consumers.
The quality of the user’s experience is ensured as Sify manages all calls over its MPLS based network for clarity of voice and reduced latency-at a fraction of the cost of an ISD call.
So, users can now speak more often, as well as longer, to their friends and loved ones abroad, the release adds.
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.
