News Broadcasting
TRP scam: Partho Dasgupta sent to 14-day judicial custody
NEW DELHI: Ex-BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta, who was arrested earlier this month in connection to the alleged TRP manipulation scam, has been sent to 14-day judicial custody by 8th Esplanade magistrate court in Mumbai.
Dasgupta, who was produced before the court after his police custody ended, also filed a bail application. His lawyer Kamlesh Ghumre argued that Dasgupta was CEO of the Broadcast Audience Research Council but there was a board of directors and a disciplinary committee above him. The bail plea will be heard on January 1.
Dasgupta, the 15th person arrested in the alleged scam, was named the ‘mastermind’ of the scam by Mumbai Police’s Crime Intelligence Unit. It has been alleged that Dasgupta was getting money from one of the accused channels in return for the favours he was doing to them by rigging TRPs.
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.
