News Broadcasting
Star Movies’ big one this March is ‘Minority Report’
MUMBAI: While the issue about it being number one is often challenged by competitors, Star Movies is definitely on a roll this year. With the Oscar ceremony already done with, the channel is ready with the big announcement of this month.
The channel will premiere the Tom Cruise starrer Minority Report on 5 March at 9:00 pm. Directed by Steven Spielberg, the movie also stars Colin Farrell and Samantha Morton.
The science-fiction thriller is based on a short story by renowned writer Philip K Dick. It is a futuristic story set in the year 2054, in Washington, DC about the murder that has been eliminated thanks to Precrime. Precime is a program that uses the visions of three psychics, called Precogs (an abbreviation for precognitive thinkers), to arrest and imprison would-be murderers before they have a chance to kill.
Tom Cruise plays John Anderton, a Precrime enforcer who believes in the system for his own personal reasons–years ago, his young son was abducted, and he has dealt with the loss by becoming a high-strung Precrime officer. The director of Precrime (Max von Sydow) is eager to take the program national, and feels threatened by an ambitious federal agent (Colin Farrell) who is bent on finding a flaw in the system. When Anderton finds himself accused of the future murder of a man he’s never met, his faith in Precrime is instantly shaken. He goes on the run, and is trailed by the relentless Precrime police. The actor who has movies like Mission Impossible, A Few Good Men and Top Gun, to his credit, delivers a yet another powerful performance.
Just like Spielberg’s phenomenal blockbusters like Jurassic Park, E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, A.I. Aritficial Intelligence, Men In Black and Schindler’s List, the movie expertly mixes thrilling chase and suspense sequences (the best of which involves Anderton being pursued by eye-scanning mechanical spiders) and stunning special effects with a challenging look at society’s willingness to sacrifice privacy and the notion of free will for convenience and security. The movie is often touted as a thought-provoking and exciting film that ranks among Spielberg’s best.
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.
