News Broadcasting
BBC World launches ‘The Internationalists’
MUMBAI: BBC World has launched ‘The Internationalists’ marketing campaign. ‘The Internationalists’ is a specially created virtual BBC island.
Guests to the virtual BBC Island can explore and interact with the island’s multimedia displays, download BBC World information, collect gifts, chat with BBC World’s global network of guests, and enter a competition to win a round-the-world ticket.
BBC World head of marketing global Leanne Mackee said, “We chose second life in order to embrace the virtual multimedia world, and to create a truly global arena within which we can not only present our ‘Internationalist’ audience, but interact with our global media trade. We are hugely excited about the vast opportunities within second life and are looking forward to exploring other events and editorial initiatives within the virtual world in the future.”
‘The Internationalist’ campaign is a global advertising and direct marketing campaign, created to introduce the international news channel’s unique audience to the media trade.
‘The Internationalists’ as defined by BBC World are conscientious consumers, big spenders and opinion leaders populating the world, who are committed to global issues and life-long learning. BBC World says the consumers have a unique appeal to a broad range of advertisers because of their interests and pursuits.
‘The Internationalists’ campaign has been created in partnership with Ogilvy Red Card. It features a range of exclusive portraits of the Internationalists by photographer Marco Grob. The second life virtual world is available is available at www.bbcworldinternationalist.com.
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.
