News Broadcasting
‘Kumars at No. 42’ in BBC’s 2003 TV moments nominees list
MUMBAI: The sitcom The Kumars at Number 42 is one of the shows that has been nominated for BBC One’s annual show that looks at the best moments in British television. In India The Kumars at Number 42 airs on Star World.
The show puts a nice twist to the chat show genre. In it Sanjeev Bhaskar plays talk show host Sanjeev Kumar. He hosts his show in his family’s backyard and has aspirations of being the next David Frost. In the nominated moment the guest is Channel 4 anchor Johnny Vaughn. He describes the time when Harvey his bulldog drove his car. It has been nominated in the Best Entertainment Moment section.
2003 TV Moments will bring together a host of celebrities in a celebration of the dramatic, poignant, tense and funniest moments from a year of telly. In the Best Reality Moment category ITV’s Pop Idol gets a mention. In the side spltting segment a young man who is just finishing his PHD sings Great Balls of Fire. Unfortunately he doesn’t seem to be clever enough to realise he has no chance of going through.
Competing for the Best Sporting Moment are BBC’s Boat Race, London Marathon and ITV’s coverage of the final of The Rugby World Cup.
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.
