News Broadcasting
BBC picks up teen drama from FremantleMedia
MUMBAI: Fremantle International Distribution (FID), the distribution arm of global format creator and owner FremantleMedia ,has sold its new teen drama Falcon Beach to the BBC and many other additional international broadcasters. The drama is now set to be broadcast in 18 countries worldwide.
BBC Daytime has secured the UK rights to the edgy new one-hour drama, which premiered on ABC Family in Australia on 5 June 2006. Further significant licensing agreements will see the programme launch on ABC, Australia; RTE, Eire; SBS (Flemish), Belgium; RTM, Malaysia; ANTV, Indonesia; ABC5, Philippines; ETV, Sri Lanka; UBC, Thailand; Show TV, Turkey and Hot, Israel.
These broadcasters join a raft of deals for Falcon Beach already signed with M6, France; TV2, Denmark; TV4, Sweden; TV Norge (SBS Channel), Norway; Channel 4, Finland; Nederland 3, Netherlands and IBC Iceland’s Sirkus.
Falcon Beach is positioned as sexy, edgy and full of energy. It is produced by Insight Productions and Original Pictures, in conjunction with Global Television and ABC Family USA and centres on the lives and loves of the town’s young men and women, as they find their way towards their futures.
Falcon Beach is a quiet lakeside town where locals and summer visitors mingle and where seduction, sand and scandal are abundant. A coming-of-age drama following a group of twenty-somethings, Falcon Beach focusses on friends, families and enemies during a summer of romance and passion, soul-searching and conflicts.
FremantleMedia CEO David Ellender said, “Falcon Beach has received a deservedly warm welcome from broadcasters the world over, and we are certain that all will be delighted with the results it will no doubt deliver. Dramas of this calibre are rare and the broadcasters that have seen the potential of Falcon Beach will soon be the envy of their rivals.”
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.
