News Broadcasting
EBU calls for pubcasters’ greater role
MUMBAI: A clear mandate and sufficient funding to offer a full and evolving range of services in the new media is what the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) is hoping from pubcasters in Europe.
To achieve this, the EBU has called on the European Union’s (EU) 25 member states to support the EU’s Lisbon Strategy
EBU is the professional association of Europe’s public service broadcasters. Senior officials of the EBU were attending a conference organised by the Dutch government – current holder of the EU presidency. The conference was called The key role of public service broadcasting in the 21st century .
The earlier mentioned Lisbon Strategy sees a decisive role for the audiovisual sector in making Europe the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010.
EBU President Arne Wessberg, who is director general of the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation YLE, said that it was the responsibility of public broadcasters to serve the diversity of publics and cultures within their country. This can be done through the new electronic media as well as on television and radio.
He said, “Public service broadcasters must be given proper possibilities, by the societies in which they operate, to serve citizens with all media technologies they choose to use, and under adequate and predictable economic conditions”.
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.
