News Broadcasting
Popstars to prove their mettle on 25 May
The much promoted [V] Popstars band will stage its first public concert on 25 May.
The five girls who make up the band are currently undergoing intensive training and thorough image makeover, says Channel [V] programming head Devika Sharma. While model Noyonika Chatterjee is the band manager, dancer Shiamak Davar has been entrusted with choreographing the event. As part of the complete turnaround, the five girls have “lost weight, fine tuned their dance skills, got their hair treated and their wardrobe refurbished by Manish Malhotra,” says Sharma.
The Popstars project, into which Star India has reportedly sunk in Rs 50 million, seems to be paying dividends for the channel. Sharma says Popstars is currently the highest rated show on [V], adding that the channel’s reach has increased since its launch. The 13-part series is also being shown in Hindi on sister channel Star Plus on Fridays at 7 pm, targeting the family audiences.
The five girls who get a shot at fame as India’s Spice Girls are Pratichee Mohapatra, Neha Bhasin, Mahua Kamat, Anushka Manchanda and Seema Ramchandani.
The group is currently spending several sessions in a studio recording the album, which is being penned by Javed Akhtar. The music is being composed by eight music directors including Jatin Lalit and Sandeep Chowta.
The band, as yet unnamed, made its first live appearance on 26 April.
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.
