News Broadcasting
Alpha Bangla institutes Bangla music awards
MUMBAI: As a tribute to Bengali music, Zee’s Bangla entertainment channel Alpha Bangla has instituted a music award property Alpha Sangeet Puraskar. The first edition of the awards was held in Kolkota on 13 February.
A jury panel comprising of columnist Swapan Mullick, musician Nondon Bagchi, film director Haranath Chakraborty and producer Mahendra Soni gave the final verdict on the winners based on public opinion, informs an official release.
There were 17 categories of nominees out of which legendary V.Balsara bagged the best instrumentalist award. Best music director award for non film was bagged by Nachiketa Chakroborty for the album Ei Agune Haat Rakho while the award in the film category went to Hotath Neerar’s music director Janyo Bikram Ghosh.
Best male singer in the film category was won by Babul Supriyo
for the film Shakti and best female singer award in this category went to Jojo for the movie Sagar Kinare. Saregama India’s Jhar Hote Pari Lopamudra won the best music video award.
In the Rabindra Sangit category, best male singer went to Srikanto Acharya for his album Jiban Chhabi and the best female singer was bagged by Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta for Cheena Phagun.
The major draw of the evening was the felicitation of Ramkumar Chattopadhyay and Nirmala Mishra with the Alpha Sangeet Sarbottam Sambordhana (Life Time Achievement Award) for their contribution to Bangla music.
The channel will telecast the award function on 20 February at 8:30 pm.
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.
