News Broadcasting
Star TV office in Mumbai ransacked
MUMBAI: An irate mob belonging to a little known organisation called Hindu Rashtriya Sena ransacked the Star TV office in Mumbai today, smashing cars parked outside the office and also damaging the office itself. The motive: anger over a programme showing a Muslim youth and a Hindu minor girl who had eloped.
Star News issued a statement condemning the incident: “We condemn this attack on our office by certain anti-social elements. They completely ransacked the Star News Office in Mumbai today, injuring our security & other staff and causing huge financial damage. It is alarming that people are using such means to register their protests. We believe that this is in reaction to our coverage about a young eloped couple from Surat. As a responsible news channel we have factually reported the situations surrounding the same. We will cooperate fully with the authorities to ensure that necessary action is taken.”
Meanhwile, Mumbai Police Commissioner of DN Jhadav said, “A little known group Hindu Rashtriya Sena was behind the attack. We have detained 35 people in the case. We will take all legal action.”
Maharashtra Deputy CM and Home Minister RR Patil promised to get tough against the miscreants stating that “such strict action would be taken against these people (to ensure) that such an action is never repeated.”
Star News CEO Uday Shankar, however, remained unconvinced by Patil’s assurances. Shankar lambasted the role of the authorities such incidents when he pointed out that such acts were becoming increasingly common because there has never been any serious action taken in the past against any of these groups.
Said Shankar, “The most disturbing part of this whole episode is the kind of intolerance that political groups can resort to and the kind of dispute resolution mechanism that is becoming increasingly popular across India where anything that a media organisation says or prints that is remotely unpalatable to an organisation or individual and you will see their supporters and goons ransacking everything.”
Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi also weighed in, terming the attack on Star as an assault on democracy and demanded that the state government bring the culprits to book.
It is worth noting here that on 9 February, 2006, a mob of over 100 Shiv Sainiks, raising slogans of Shiv Sena chief Bal Tackeray, had pelted stones at a Zee News office and had ransacked the property in protest against the telecast of a play on Zee Alpha Marathi channel.
In that attack several Zee News employees were also injured, with a few of them having been rushed to a nearby hospital.
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: 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.
