News Broadcasting
Star TV moves in close to acquiring 25% in Hathway
News TV India Ltd, the Indian arm of Rupert Murdoch-owned Star TV, is all set to acquire a 25% stake in Rajan Raheja-owned cable network, Hathway Cable & Datacom Private Ltd.
A formal announcement to this effect is expected to be made by Star officials next week.
With this deal, Star TV would have its long standing need of owning a cable distribution network, completed. With its rival channel Zee Telefilms owning its own cable network, Siti Cable, Star felt the serious need to strengthen its distribution platform.
Hathway is one of the leading MSO (multi system operator) in India with a substantial share of consumers in the cable distribution business. The other leading MSO’s in the country are Siti Cable, owned Zee Telefilms, and Hinduja, owned IN CableNet.
Having gained access to the cable distribution network, Star can also go ahead with its convergence plans and other plans for the Internet sector. It has already set up a new media division to look into broadband, convergence and other Internet related services in the country.
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.
