News Broadcasting
Star News’ special on ‘Temple land scam’
Star News- the 24 hour Hindi news channel had extensively reported on the Temple land scam in Andhra Pradesh. The channel will showcase this expose in every news segment.
The coverage exposed on the complicity of senior government officials in the sale of temple land worth million of rupees at throwaway rates. Apart from this, the channel will also showcase several high-ranking government officials who have resultantly come under the scanner, informs a media release.
The report will also throw light on the fact that the Andhra Pradesh Endowment Commissioner, I Venkateshwarlu, who was set to retire on the 31 May allowed the sale of temple land merely a week before his retirement.
After the scam was reported, the state government had ordered an enquiry by the Anti Corruption Bureau into the matter, and suspended five officials.
The media release adds that after the channel highlighted the extent of the scam, that the state government of YS Rajashekhara Reddy ordered a Judicial Probe into the matter.
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.
