News Broadcasting
BBC buys comedy ‘Arrested Development’ from Fox
MUMBAI: The BBC has bought the UK television rights to the comedy Arrested Development from Fox Television.
The comedy revolves around widower Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman) who reluctantly finds himself teaching his offbeat relatives how to live without the company expense account after the head of the family George Bluth Sr (Jeffrey Tambor) is arrested for dodgy accounting practices. Oscar winning director Ron Howard of Apollo 13 is the narrator and also one of the show’s executive producers.
BBC Controller of Acquisitions George McGhee said, “I believe that Arrested Development will be a great addition to programming on BBC TWO and BBC FOUR, offering viewers a truly funny and different sitcom.” The BBC plans to transmit the series late next year.
The series has been nominated in the Best Comedy or Musical category for the 2004 Golden Globe awards. It was also named by the American Film Industry as one of the top eight shows currently on TV.
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.
