News Broadcasting
Swaraj pushes for Broadcasting Regulatory Authority
NEW DELHI: Trust India’s information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj to drive to the hilt the advantage she has gained in recent times. Now she is pushing for a Broadcasting Regulatory Authority.
Egged on by her, the Parliamentary Consultative Committee, attached to India’s information and broadcasting ministry, in a meeting earlier today, came out strongly in favour of forming a regulatory body to monitor unregulated content on television channels in the country as soon as possible.
Members of Parliament, cutting across party lines, said that this was necessary in order to address the concerns of public order and decency, preservation of cultural diversity, prevention of excessive depiction of sex and violence, national security, integrity and sovereignty of the country and protection of children from undesirable programmes and advertisements, government sources told indiantelevision.com.
The issue is being seen as another step taken by I&B minister Sushma Swaraj in recent times to have in place a legislation to regulate the broadcasting and cable sectors in a piecemeal fashion, ahead of an omnibus legislation being proposed to govern the three sectors of media, information technology and telecommunications.
According to the sources, presiding over the meeting, Swaraj fully shared the concerns of the members and said that the ministry would consider setting up of an independent Broadcasting Regulatory Authority. According to Swaraj, the earlier Broadcasting Bill was not pursued in view of the introduction of the Communication Convergence Bill 2001 that had a provision for setting up of a panel for content regulation.
The members felt that in case of a delay in finalising the Convergence Bill, the government should move ahead towards regulating content since the programmes on various television channels were becoming increasingly unwholesome.
Merely waiting for the Convergence Act would not help, they are reported to have chorused —- something which Swaraj, on being criticised by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) for getting legislations passed in a piecemeal fashion, had reiterated in Parliament earlier.
IT, telecom and parliamentary minister Pramod Mahajan had some time earlier told indiantelevision.com that he does not foresee the Communications Convergence Bill, envisaging a super-regulator for IT, broadcasting and telecom, being discussed by policy-makers in Parliament before May 2003.
Meanwhile, arguing strongly for the immediate need of content regulation, Saroj Dubey, a BJP Member of Parliament during the meeting today said women are projected in a very bad light through some serials and advertisements on some channels.
Another MP, Vijay Darda, said that the proposed Authority must have adequate powers to punish the defaulters and should not be like the Press Council of India, which is unable to enforce its decisions. Kartar Singh Duggal said that the Authority be set up immediately without waiting for the Convergence Bill’s passage in Parliament and, at the same time, the script writers, artists, producers, broadcasters, advertisers and the viewers may be made aware of their obligations.
E. M. Sudarsana Natchiappan said the glorification of drinking, smoking, sex, violence and degraded values must not be allowed to be carried on. Abdul Rashid Shaheen shared the concerns but wanted detailed discussions both in and outside the Parliament.
Other MPs who wanted immediate action included C Narayana Reddy, G Sukhender Reddy, D Ramanaidu, Ram Naresh Tripathi, Lalhmingliana and Ajay Maroo.
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.
