News Broadcasting
Karachi punter wins all-new ‘Super Selector’
MUMBAI: Hasnain Abbas of Karachi has emerged as the Winner of the innovative, interactive and integrated game show ESPN STAR Sports Super Selector by choosing the best team with a mind-boggling Super Score of 2591 points in September.
As Super Selector for the month of September Hasnain Abbas, 24, a die-hard cricket fan, will get a dream prize – a free trip to Wellington and an opportunity to share the commentary box with the likes of Sunil Gavaskar, Navjot Sidhu and Harsha Bhogle during the first test between India and New Zealand from December 12 to 16.
Hasnain’s Dream Team, which won him a place among the cricket experts, included Andy Flower, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, Marcus Trescothick, Matthew Hayden, Virender Sehwag, Muttiah Muralitharan, Ronnie Irani, Shane Bond, Shane Watson and Kumara Sangakkara.
The new version of Super Selector has introduced the concept of ‘Mini Super Selector’ whereby in addition to selecting their favourite cricket teams, the participants can now opt to select only the top three players – best batsman, best bowler and best wicketkeeper for the month.
The winner of The Mini Super Selector game for September is Sajid Virani from Andheri, Mumbai for his selection comprising Virendra Sehwag as Best Batsman, Muttiah Muralitharan as Best Bowler and Kumara Sangakkara as Best Wicketkeeper. Sajid won a motorbike.
Super Selector offers an opportunity to millions of cricket lovers to prove their cricket knowledge and apply their skills in a unique game show, where people play a real game by selecting a real team.
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.
