News Broadcasting
ARY Digital Network bags Bollywood Awards telecast rights
MUMBAI: ARY Digital Network has bagged the Bollywood Awards and Bollywood Fashion Awards exclusive telecast rights.
The network will be airing the ceremony to be held at the Xanadu in Taj Mahal in Atlantic City on 30 April and 1 May 2004.
This year the event boasts of international stars line up including Hollywood star Sharon Stone along with notable stars from Bollywood including Rajesh Khanna, Hema Malini, Mira Nair, Sanjay Dutt, Kareena Kapoor, Urmilla Matondkar and Bipasha Basu.
In a bid to felicitate Stone’s dedication and support for charitable organizations like Amfar and The Bridge Fund, the organisers will be honouring her with Woman of Conscience Award, says a company release.
With India and Pakistan’s relations at an all time high this year, the Bollywood Awards will be presenting two special awards for excellence in Pakistani Cinema. The ceremony will also feature ace Indian designers Neeta Lulla and Ritu Beri collections. Besides, a Supermodel will also be honoured as International Model of the Year.
ARY Digital Network President and CEO Salman Iqbal says, “We are proud to be a part of these awards, which will further our commitment in providing quality television entertainment to viewers all over the world. Special shows such as these, will complement the popular sitcoms, serials and highly interactive lifestyle and music programs, talk shows, religious programs, and top notch ICC cricketing action on ARY Digital”,
He further says, “As a network which has spanned into over 130 countries globally, we are building bridges for cultural exchange and eliminating geographical distances and boundaries through T.V”.
ARY Digital will also be hosting and telecasting the coveted Bollywood Music Awards in the city of Dubai at the end of this year. This event will bring together over two dozen performances from artists from India, Pakistan and two pop and rock legends from the US and UK, adds the release.
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.
