News Broadcasting
Zee Telefilms lodges FIR against T-Series’ Bhushan Kumar
MUMBAI: Subhash Chandra’s Zee Telefilms Ltd. has accused T-Series promoter and Super Cassettes Industries Limited (SCIL) CMD Bhushan Kumar of non-payment of dues and forging of agreement papers. Accordingly, the company has registered an FIR with Mumbai’s Economic Offence Wing (EOW) against Kumar for cheating and forgery.
According to Zee Telefilms lawyer Ramesh Pandey, the basis of the case with the EOW are two letters drafted by Bhusan Kumar, one on 15 September and the other on 15 May, in which he claims that an amount of Rs 57.3 million was to be paid to SCIL by ETC Channel Network Ltd., on the basis of alleged agreement/Letter dated 15 May 2006.
However, there is no such agreement/Letter dated 15 May 2006 on the records of ETC Channel Limited, and therefore ETC Channel Network has exercised its legal right & filed a complaint before the EOW for commission of an act of forgery, cheating and criminal conspiracy against Kumar. Pursuant to the same an FIR has been registered at Oshiwara Police Station against Bhusan Kumar and others of SCIL for commission of offence as mentioned above, Pandey adds.
T-Series lawyers have been quoted in a Financial Express report as saying that, “The letters are not forged and if at all there was a case in the matter, its civil in nature.” The company also claimed that the two officials who had signed the agreement on behalf of ETC have been removed.
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.
