News Broadcasting
Hungama TV to launch 26 September
MUMBAI: Hungama TV, the 24-hour kids’ channel from the UTV stable, will start beaming into Indian homes from 10 am on Sunday, 26 September.
However, with just nine days to go for the channel to start beaming, it is yet to get ministry clearance for uplinking. Talking exclusively to Indiantelevision.com, Hungama TV COO Purnendu Bose expresses confidence that the clearance would come through within the time period. Even in the event of that not happening, a contingency plan is in place wherein the channel would be temporarily uplinked from Singapore, Bose says.
Hungama TV, to be distributed by Star, will be priced at Rs. 6 per subscriber per month. The channel’s multi-media marketing and promotional campaigns launched today.
Hungama TV has lined up content from around 12 productions houses including Garima, Balaji Telefilms, BAG Films and Creative Eye, among others.
Regarding the methods to be used to involve the 20 TV captains the channel has selected to give inputs, Bose said the communication would be via latest communication technologies. Hungama is also launching its website on the day of its launch.
The kids’ channel will be targeting four to 14-year-olds instead of the four to 18 TG that had earlier been decided upon. Bose adds that 15-18 year-olds is being avoided for the moment to avoid complications, as the research the channel has done thus far showed that the age group thinks differently when compared to the four to 14 group.
Talking about programming content, Bose said 95 per cent of the matter was ready and the rest just needed a finishing touch. The channel will have eight hours per day of original content.
Bose feels that more channels in the children’s programming space would only help to expand a hitherto untapped market.
News Broadcasting
Book Cricket gets a digital century on News18 amid T20 fever
Nostalgic classroom game revamped in English, Hindi plus Telugu on web and app.
MUMBAI: When the T20 World Cup fever hits fever pitch, News18 decides to flip the script straight back to the classroom. The digital news platform has revived the timeless schoolyard favourite Book Cricket as an interactive online game, perfectly timed to ride the cricket wave gripping fans across the globe. The reimagined Book Cricket ditches textbooks for smartphones, blending old-school nostalgia with modern gameplay. Once a sneaky recess pastime played by flicking book pages to score runs, the digital version now offers seamless fun for anyone craving a quick cricket fix between overs.
Available in English, Hindi and Telugu (with more languages planned across News18’s network), the game sits within the platform’s fast-growing gaming portfolio of over 20 titles, all built in-house. It joins event-driven hits like ‘Kursi Catcher’ and ‘Result Rewind’ during the 2025 Bihar Assembly Elections, plus festive specials such as ‘Durga’s Astras’ for Durga Puja and ‘Mouse Modak’ for Ganesh Chaturthi.
News18 Digital CEO Mitul Sangani said, “Gaming is a key pillar of our engagement strategy. At News18, we uniquely combine our newsroom agility with immersive gaming experiences. By blending credible content with interactive formats, we are creating meaningful engagement in an era defined by shrinking attention spans and evolving consumption habits.”
Select titles have expanded beyond News18.com to CNBC-TV18.com and Firstpost.com, reflecting the network’s push to deepen user interaction across platforms. The Book Cricket game is live now at https://www.news18.com/games/book-cricket/.
In a tournament where every boundary counts, News18’s digital Book Cricket proves the simplest games can still deliver the biggest smiles no syllabus required, just pure cricket joy one page-flip at a time.
