News Broadcasting
BSkyB subscriber base sky rockets
MUMBAI: British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) has hit a viewer milestone. On Friday, the UK/ Ireland satellite TV platform controlled by News Corp claimed that it had added 170,000 net subscribers in its last fiscal quarter, taking its total to more than 7 million.
With the subscriber base crossing 7 million, the revenues for the company increased by 17 percent to 850 million pounds. According to the media reports, the company claimed that DTH revenues increased by 17 percent to 628 million pounds, which was attributed to a 12 percent increase in the number of satellite TV subscribers.
According to the report, the satellite broadcaster has achieved its goal of signing up seven million subscribers, three months ahead of schedule. The company was originally hoping to attract seven million subscribers latest by the end of this year.
During the tenure of CEO Tony Ball, the firm began to attract a mass audience with the set-top boxes and minidishes to decode digital television signals. The company’s subscriber base has grown strongly since then. Also what boosted the subscriber base was its exclusive deal to screen football matches between the elite English Premier League clubs.
With CEO James Murdoch taking over the reins from Tony Ball, the company is now aiming to increase its total subscriber base to eight million by the end of 2005. It also wants to boost average revenue per user to ?400, up from ?366 in June 2004, reports say.
News Broadcasting
Book Cricket gets a digital century on News18 amid T20 fever
Nostalgic classroom game revamped in English, Hindi plus Telugu on web and app.
MUMBAI: When the T20 World Cup fever hits fever pitch, News18 decides to flip the script straight back to the classroom. The digital news platform has revived the timeless schoolyard favourite Book Cricket as an interactive online game, perfectly timed to ride the cricket wave gripping fans across the globe. The reimagined Book Cricket ditches textbooks for smartphones, blending old-school nostalgia with modern gameplay. Once a sneaky recess pastime played by flicking book pages to score runs, the digital version now offers seamless fun for anyone craving a quick cricket fix between overs.
Available in English, Hindi and Telugu (with more languages planned across News18’s network), the game sits within the platform’s fast-growing gaming portfolio of over 20 titles, all built in-house. It joins event-driven hits like ‘Kursi Catcher’ and ‘Result Rewind’ during the 2025 Bihar Assembly Elections, plus festive specials such as ‘Durga’s Astras’ for Durga Puja and ‘Mouse Modak’ for Ganesh Chaturthi.
News18 Digital CEO Mitul Sangani said, “Gaming is a key pillar of our engagement strategy. At News18, we uniquely combine our newsroom agility with immersive gaming experiences. By blending credible content with interactive formats, we are creating meaningful engagement in an era defined by shrinking attention spans and evolving consumption habits.”
Select titles have expanded beyond News18.com to CNBC-TV18.com and Firstpost.com, reflecting the network’s push to deepen user interaction across platforms. The Book Cricket game is live now at https://www.news18.com/games/book-cricket/.
In a tournament where every boundary counts, News18’s digital Book Cricket proves the simplest games can still deliver the biggest smiles no syllabus required, just pure cricket joy one page-flip at a time.
