News Broadcasting
AWRT to honour CNN with four Gracie Allen awards
NEW YORK: The Foundation of American Women in Radio and Television (AWRT) has awarded CNN four Gracie Allen awards. It has recognised senior international correspondent Christiane Amanpour and anchor Connie Chung as individual achievement winners along with CNN Productions and Larry King Live for programming excellence. The felicitation takes place at the 28th annual gala to be held on 17 April in New York City at the New York Hilton Hotel.
Amanpour won in the Best Reporter/Correspondent category while Chung won in the Anchor/News Magazine category for her June 2002 interview with Luciano Pavarotti in which the opera icon discussed for the first time his retirement plans.
Larry King Live won in the Programming/Information Talk Show category for host Larry King’s July 2002 interview with former Texas first lady Nellie Connally. The foundation also honored CNN Productions’ People in the News in the News Documentary/30 minutes or less category for its February 2002 profile of US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.
AWRT is a US nonprofit organisation that extends membership to qualified professional women and men, in the electronic media and allied fields. AWRT’s mission is to advance the impact of women in the electronic media and allied fields by educating, advocating and acting as a resource to its members and the industry. Founded in 1951, AWRT has worked to improve the quality of the electronic media; to promote the entry, development and advancement of women in the electronic media and allied fields; to serve as a medium of communication and idea exchange; and to become involved in community concerns.
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.
