News Broadcasting
Eight Indian broadcast journalists win Cardiff scholarship
MUMBAI: With the impending explosion of news channels in the country from the likes of Sahara and NDTV there has been an understandable spurt of enthusiasm among youngsters in the field of broadcast journalism. Eight Indian journalists have received a kickstart to their careers courtesy a Chevening Scholarship. They will attend a 12-week broadcast journalists programme at Thomson Foundation, University of Cardiff.
The scholars were selected from hundreds of applications from all over India. They include Star News’ Sidharth Datta, CNBC’s Supriya Unni, DD News’ Chitra Joshi and Aaj Tak’s Rica Roy,
An official release informs that The Chevening Scholarships Programme is funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the UK government and managed by the British Council. The scholarships provide an opportunity to study in the UK.
The broadcast journalists programme runs from 23 June to 12 September 2003. The Chevening programme began in 1987 and has supported over 1,600 Indian scholars to date. India currently has the second largest annual number of Chevening scholars in the world, with an annual budget of 1.5 million, supporting up to 120 scholarships every year.
The Chevening scholarship programme comprises a range of short-term tailor-made professional courses and long-term academic courses tenable at various higher education institutions in the UK. The Chevening awards are fully funded awards, which cover the entire tuition fee and living expenses for the selected scholar for the duration of the award, which normally varies from four weeks to 12 months.
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.
