News Broadcasting
HBO trains sights on housewives with ‘Time Out’
MUMBAI: HBO is set to target the housewife from September with Time Out, an alternative to the routine morning fare trotted out on other channels.
An official release informs that the channel will bring two movies, back-to-back every weekday afternoon, starting 11 am in the programme band HBO Time Out. The films run the gamut from period pieces, to family films to serial killer thrillers. The entertainment saga begins 2 September with Poison. Other films that will be screened include Sense and Sensibility, Beethovens 2nd, The Bone Collector, Outbreak and Striptease. The last one, the Demi Moore starrer, comes a surprise as one associates that kind of film with late night viewing.
In addition, the channel has announced that to coincide with the Emmy season, it will have the programme block HBO Original Movies – Emmy Stunt. The films will air next month every Monday at 9:30 pm. The treat begins on 2 September with the Triple Emmy award winning, HBO Original film examining the war against aids And The Band Played On. Starring Richard Gere, Matthew Modine and Alan Alda, the real-life drama chronicles the tragic, time-consuming battles among government agencies, gay groups and scientists that hindered the discovery and research on the AIDS virus. The film shows how the gay population in San Francisco came to be at risk in the early 1980s.
Speaking on the programming initiative MD HBO South Asia James P. Marturano said: “HBO Original productions are a strong differentiator for the channel to create extra value for our viewers since these are programs that are not released theatrically and premiere exclusively on HBO channel.”
Currently, HBO claims to produce an average of six original films per year.
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.
