News Broadcasting
Prasar Bharati ends old pitch system, shifts all content to Waves Bazaar
Public broadcaster shuts NIPP and NIFFP routes, makes digital portal the only submission path
NEW DELHI: India’s public broadcaster Prasar Bharati has scrapped its traditional content proposal routes and will now accept all pitches through a single digital marketplace, Waves Bazaar.
In a circular issued this week, the broadcaster said it will no longer accept submissions under the Notice Inviting Programme Proposals (NIPP) and Notice Inviting Feature Film Proposals (NIFFP) with immediate effect. The change applies to all content types, including television programmes, web series, short films and feature films, that were earlier pitched for Doordarshan channels and the Waves OTT platform.
The NIPP and NIFFP notices were issued in September 2024 and later expanded in November to include already produced content. That submission window is now closed.
According to the circular, all future programme and film proposals for both DD channels and Waves OTT must be submitted through the Waves Bazaar portal.
Waves Bazaar is being positioned as a digital marketplace where content owners and buyers can pitch and evaluate projects through online viewing rooms. The platform spans film, television, animation, gaming and live events, and is open to both studios and independent creators.
The move is part of Prasar Bharati’s broader digital push around Waves OTT, which has crossed eight million downloads in its first year. The broadcaster has also introduced monetisation tools such as pay per view and a content syndication policy to generate revenue from new commissions and its archive.
With Waves Bazaar feeding into both Waves OTT and Doordarshan, the broadcaster aims to create a streamlined system for content discovery, acquisition and distribution. For producers and rights holders, the message is straightforward. All future submissions must now go through the Waves Bazaar portal.
The circular does not clarify the status of proposals already submitted under the earlier notices, and producers are awaiting further guidance on timelines or migration to the new system.
Either way, the direction is clear. Even the country’s public broadcaster is leaning into a digital first workflow, as Prasar Bharati tries to make Waves the tide that carries both its OTT ambitions and its traditional television networks.
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.
