News Broadcasting
40th anniversary of world’s longest running TV show
MIAMI: To commemorate 40 years of success, Latin American programme Sabado Gigante will air an anniversary special on Saturday, 9 November. Sabado Gigante holds the ‘Guinness Book of World Records’ title for the longest running programme in the history of television.
Sabado Gigante was started by Mario Kreutzberger popularly known as Don Francisco in Chile in 1962 and has aired on the Univision Network since 1986. The unique variety show features games, contests, comedy, celebrity guests and musical performances. It is considered a necessary platform for political figures including Al Gore and George W. Bush. In addition, Sabado Gigante has been the stepping-stone for international stars such as Enrique Iglesias. The show has become a phenomenon with over 100 million viewers in 42 countries.
Don Francisco has been on-air for the equivalent of 600 continuous days, travelled more than 2.8 million miles (10 times the distance between the earth and the moon!), hosted over 1.5 million contestants and given away over 3,000 cars and $50+ million in prizes.
Univision Communications is the premier Spanish-language media company in the United States.
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.
