News Broadcasting
Stratos tech has BBC beaming from centre of Afghan conflict
Technology has been as much at the battlelines in Afghanistan as the journalists who reported in the foreground of the bomb-scarred skyline.
Stratos, a satellite communication company claims equal credit for bringing the latest news to homes around the world in the form of television and radio broadcasts on the BBC. It was satellite technology that tided over most journalists in communicating their reports from one of the harshest, barren environments known. BBC Radio Technical Coordinator Keith Wood says using the Inmarsat GAN terminal to access Stratos’ global network of earth stations has played an essential part in enabling the BBC to report the news as it happens. “As the equipment is fully portable it has allowed us to get in and follow the story close to the front line action in sound and vision at reasonable cost.”
Reporting teams based in various locations like Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan used Stratos’ Satelan service in a variety of ways, allowing them to send back reports in various forms, says an official release. Live video reports were sent daily over the Stratos Satelan service, which provides users with access to Stratos’ wholly owned global satellite network via a portable GAN terminal and Inmarsat’s network of satellites. This enabled viewers to witness reporters following the Northern Alliance in its quest to remove the Taliban government.
The method used for sending back the live video reports is to connect a GAN(x) terminal, which provides the user with a 64kb/s ISDN channel, to a customized version of a video phone designed specifically for use on the road and with the GAN terminal, claims Stratos. Reporters have also used a method called Store & Forward, by connecting the terminal to either a Toko or Voyager-lite, allowing the user to record their report, compress it and then forward it on to the news room. Radio reports were filed over the Satelan service, and live two-way radio interviews by connecting an ISDN mixer to the terminal.
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.
