News Broadcasting
BBC kicks off Big Screen World Cup Tour in the UK
MUMBAI: To mark the start of the World Cup on Friday UK pubcaster the BBC has announced that its Big Screen World Cup Tour in the UK is heading to the David Beckham Academy in Greenwich, East London for a special children’s ‘Welcome to the World Cup’ party.
Around 500 local young players and their families will be invited to the academy to watch the opening ceremony and the first game from Munich on the big screen hosted by BBC Radio Five Live as Germany take on Costa Rica on Friday 9 June.
The big screen will be in the car park and open from 3.30 pm with an Opening Ceremony of children from the academy parading flags from all countries taking part.
There will also be a range of on-site entertainment including giant table football, football street theatre, an interactive virtual penalty shoot-out, the BBC Sport Academy ‘Keepy Uppy’ competition as well as face painters and cheerleaders.
BBC Live Events project director Bill Morris said, “This promises to be an exciting start to the BBC Big Screen World Cup Tour which is part of the BBC’s offering for the World Cup.
“The screens will appear in towns and cities across the country every single day of the World Cup providing live coverage of the top match that day.”
BBC Big Screen World Cup Tour sees two giant screens touring a range of sites from Guernsey to Glasgow and Preston to Peterborough and will set up in town squares, festival grounds and even a service station.
Radio Five Live’s man Mark Clemmit will be in place to host screen one. Mark will link into Five Live as well as local radio stations giving fans an opportunity to voice their thoughts on the forthcoming match. BBC Sport will relay scenes from the big screens to fans watching at home
As well as catching all the action on a huge screen, there’ll be family friendly entertainment including interactive games, crowd cams and the chance to text in comments and even give player ratings.
News Broadcasting
CNN-News18 to air live counting day coverage for five state election results on May 4
The channel is rolling out its biggest election coverage machinery yet for results day on 4th May
NOIDA: The votes have been cast. Now comes the reckoning. CNN-News18 is pulling out all the stops for results day on 4th May, when counting begins across five battleground states — West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry — in what promises to be one of the most closely watched electoral verdicts in recent memory.
The channel’s coverage, titled Battle for the States: The Verdict, kicks off at 7am and runs through the day across linear TV, connected television and YouTube. It is the culmination of CNN-News18’s multi-format editorial initiative, Battle for the States, which has tracked the polls from the beginning under the theme Road to Power.
At the operational heart of the coverage will be the Live Results Hub, the channel’s central command centre built to collate, verify and process real-time data flowing in from reporters stationed at counting centres across constituencies. The hub combines newsroom intelligence, analytics and on-the-ground reporting to deliver what the channel promises will be the fastest and most accurate results coverage in English news.
Leading the on-air charge will be primetime anchors Rahul Shivshankar, Anand Narasimhan, Aman Sharma, Nabila Jamal and Shivani Gupta. They will be joined by a wide panel of commentators including author Chetan Bhagat; GVL Narasimha Rao, senior leader of the BJP; Smita Prakash, editor of ANI; activist Saira Shah Halim; political analyst Sumanth C Raman; Abhijit Iyer Mitra, senior fellow at IPCS; Amitabh Tiwari, founder of VoteVibe; columnist Abhijit Majumdar; Nalin Mehta, managing editor of MoneyControl; political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla; senior journalist Subir Bhaumik; and political analyst Manojit Mandal.
Shivshankar, who serves as editorial affairs director at CNN-News18, set out the stakes plainly. “Counting day is one of the most watched events in the electoral cycle, where speed and credibility are tested in real time,” he said. “Battle for the States: The Verdict is built on that promise, combining ground reporting, sharp analysis and cutting-edge election technology to give viewers the clearest and fastest route to the verdict. On May 4, CNN-News18 will once again be the nation’s most trusted channel to witness democracy in action.”
Smriti Mehra, chief executive of English and Business News at Network18, framed the coverage in broader terms. “Elections are defining national events, and audiences turn to brands they trust in moments that matter,” she said. “CNN-News18 has consistently led from the front in every election coverage, and this special programming reflects the scale of our ambition and editorial strength.”
The channel has form here. It claims to have been India’s most preferred English news destination for election results for the past 20 years, covering everything from the 2024 general elections to the Delhi, Maharashtra, Bihar and BMC polls on the back of what it calls an “Always First, Always Right” record. Five states, one day, and a nation waiting for answers. The clock starts at 7am on 4th May.
