News Broadcasting
SS Music dishes ‘reality’ for special Valentine couple
MUMBAI: In the high season of Valentine’s Day, reality is what the southern music channel SS Music is attempting to deliver to its viewers. As a Valentine’s Day special treat, in the show aptly named as Dream Date, the channel covers the dream date of a selected couple for the Valentine’s Day .
While the winner Aamir was involved in the entire process of planning the day, his wife is kept in the dark. A Mercedes car, exclusive screening of a movie, a diamond ring, a luncheon and a gift were arranged for the couple.
On 14 February, Amir took his wife out for a surprise Valentine’s Day date in the merc. After the movie, he presented her with a diamond ring and a dream gadget (a mobile phone) and took her to an exotic luncheon.
All this was covered live by the SS Music team and will be edited for telecast later towards the end of February.
The sponsor participants of the event included Satyam Cinemas, Vummidi Bangaru Jewellers, The Park and Reliance Infocomm.
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.
