News Broadcasting
Alan Johnston to host BBC’s ‘From Our Own Correspondent’
MUMBAI: Alan Johnston, the BBC reporter who was kidnapped in Gaza last year, is the new presenter of From Our Own Correspondent (FOOC) for BBC World Service.
During his career, Alan has written a series of dispatches for the long-running BBC Radio programme from the Middle East as well as Central Asia and Afghanistan.
In one of the pieces that he wrote in Gaza before he was kidnapped, he admitted that the possibility of being taken hostage terrified him.
During the 114 days he was kept prisoner by the Army of Islam, he spent hours working out how, once free, he would tell his story on FOOC. In October last year, an entire edition of the programme, some 27 minutes, was given over to Alan’s story.
Commenting on his new job, he said, “I hope that the show might benefit from having a regular presenter, and one who has both contributed to it and been a fan for many years. The structure of the programme will stay the same however – the extraordinarily successful FOOC formula would be very hard to improve.”
In a world where the correspondents’ stories must often be condensed into a minute or less, or perhaps confined to a single answer to a programme presenter’s question, FOOC gives them an opportunity to say a little more – to provide some of the context to the stories they are covering, to describe some of the characters involved and some of the sights they see as they watch events unfold.
The show’s producer Tony Grant said, “I am delighted to be working more closely with Alan. In the past, most of our conversations were down crackly phone lines. He may have done loads of pieces for our programme, but I never got to meet him until after his kidnap ordeal. It will be great now to work side by side with him; he’ll make a really terrific presenter.”
News Broadcasting
Network18 channels lead YouTube news viewership in March 2026
CNN-News18, News18 India and CNBC channels top categories with record views
MUMBAI: When the world hit refresh on breaking news, Network18’s channels were already streaming ahead. As geopolitical tensions and war-driven headlines fuelled a surge in global news consumption, the network’s digital playbook delivered big clocking record Youtube viewership across English, Hindi and business news categories in March 2026.
At the forefront was CNN-News18, which emerged as the clear leader in the English news segment with 130 million live and video-on-demand views. The channel edged past competitors such as Times of India (126.5 million), Times Now (101.1 million), India Today (88.2 million) and NDTV (77.5 million), according to Databeings data for March.
In the Hindi news arena, News18 India delivered a commanding performance, racking up a staggering 3,297 million views on YouTube. The channel comfortably outpaced NDTV India, which recorded 3,119 million views, underlining its deep reach and consistent engagement with mass audiences, as per Playboard data.
The network’s dominance wasn’t confined to general news. In the Hindi business segment, CNBC Awaaz topped the charts with 92 million views, narrowly ahead of Zee Business (90 million) and well ahead of ET Now Swadesh (57 million). Meanwhile, its English counterpart CNBC-TV18 posted a strong 58 million views, reinforcing the network’s cross-category strength.
The spike in viewership reflects a broader shift in audience behaviour, with viewers increasingly turning to digital platforms particularly Youtube for real-time updates and in-depth coverage during high-intensity news cycles. For Network18, the numbers signal more than just scale; they underline the effectiveness of a multi-platform strategy that blends speed, credibility and continuous coverage.
In a month where the news never paused, it seems viewers chose to stay tuned where the stream never stopped.
