News Broadcasting
Lille Dialogues set for 24 March under Series Mania Forum
Mumbai: Series Mania’s president Rodolphe Belmer and founder & general director Laurence Herszberg have announced the guests of honor for the 2022 Lille Dialogues. Lille Dialogues is all set for 24 March and this year, the summit is themed around ‘Empowering the Audiovisual Industry with Creativity.’
The one-day summit brings together European lawmakers and international TV industry leaders to encourage joint reflection on the challenges facing the industry and to promote international cooperation. Sharing the idea behind this year’s theme, Herszberg said, “now more than ever, our goal is to promote a culture that fosters pluralism, diversity, and social cohesion.”
Belmer added that creativity is the starting point for the influential stories that end up on our screens, therefore, it’s an essential topic to explore in the industry. “We look forward to welcoming our esteemed guests to Lille to share their ideas and expertise,” Belmer said.
The event, which is part of the ‘French Presidency of the Council of the European Union 2022,’ is organised in partnership with the Ministry of Culture, the CNC, and the European Commission. The 2022 edition will feature panel discussions, plus several keynotes delivered by top industry executives, exploring the crucial role of creativity in the international audiovisual industry and asking the question of who governs it.
Meanwhile, the hotly anticipated Series Mania Forum is set to unwind between 22 and 24 March within the fifth Lille-based edition of the Series Mania Festival.
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: 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.
