News Broadcasting
Star applies for port-to-port uplinking through VSNL
NEW DELHI: With the clock ticking towards the 31 March 2003 termination of the NDTV-Star India alliance, Rupert Murdoch’s company is making all the arrangements for the smooth transition to the new Star News feed.
As part of this process, Star has applied to the government for permission to use international gateway Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) for port to port uplinking.
Currently the arrangement is that NDTV sends the signal through VSNL to Hong Kong, from where it is uplinked onto the Asiasat satellite.
Star India officials however, offered no comments, when asked about the latest developments.
Though Star, surprisingly, has not applied for a direct uplink licence, in 1997, Newscorp boss Rupert Murdoch did consider using Bangalore as an uplink station.
Watch this space for a detailed report to follow.
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.
