News Broadcasting
BBC launches online campaign to discover new comedy talent
MUMBAI: UK pubcaster the BBC has announced that to celebrate the third birthday of BBC Three the channel has launched an online campaign in the UK. The aim is to find the next generation of comedy writers and creators from amongst its audience, to launch in early March.
The campaign is to be overseen by BBC Comedy North (led by Kenton Allen, the BBC’s Creative Head of Comedy Talent and Comedy North), supported by BBC New Talent and bbc.co.uk/soup.
The BBC Three campaign, which will be promoted on-air, invites users to submit their comedy sketches via bbc.co.uk/bbcthree, where comedy masterclasses from some of the biggest names in comedy will be available to view and the best submissions will be showcased, alongside information about the initiative.
The writers and performers of the best sketches will be invited to attend comedy workshops given by leading comedy talent and BBC Comedy North in Manchester in June. Ultimately, if the campaign is successful in uncovering a diverse range of new talent then it is envisaged that a half-hour comedy pilot could be produced for transmission on BBC Three.
The campaign follows a string of other BBC Three talent initiatives such as award schemes for new animators and film-makers (which are showcased on bbc.co.uk/bbcthree), as well as The Last Laugh, which the BBC claims is the UK’s largest-ever sitcom-writing competition. It airs on Saturday nights over eight weeks.
Allen says, “BBC Three continues to be the standout channel for launching new British comedy talent. This is a major campaign that will run over several months, which we hope will extend and complement the more traditional ways in which we discover and engage with the next generation of comedy programme makers.
“It’s part of BBC Three’s DNA, and builds on our ongoing commitment to exploit broadband and mobile platforms to engage audiences, offering them wider access to and involvement in our programmes. Now, we’re beginning to put a new generation of media and technology-aware viewers in the driving seat of new comedy content.”
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.
