News Broadcasting
BBC online radio benefits from Ashes coverage
MUMBAI: Live coverage of The Ashes contributed to another record month of online listening to BBC Radio in the UK. Desk-bound cricket fans kept up-to-date with England’s progress.
Five Live Sports Extra and Radio 4 LW both eclipsed their previous online listening records by more than 300 per cent in August, notching up two million and 250,000 hours of live online listening respectively.
The networks’ figures – buoyed by office workers keen to follow the action on the Internet – contributed to a monthly total of 16.1 million hours of live and on demand listening.
BBC 7’s wide range of programming in August – from a Little Britain night to a Bill Nighy weekend – brought increased traffic to the station’s website, with more than 460,000 unique user agents visiting during the month.
Between them they consumed more than a million hours of BBC 7 on demand and secured the network six programmes in August’s On Demand Top 30.
This year’s Proms attracted more than 385,000 on demand listens – a 66 per cent increase on last year.
News Broadcasting
Rising Bharat Summit 2026 to spotlight India’s global rise
PM Modi keynotes two-day event on 27–28 February in New Delhi with ministers, diplomats and icons.
MUMBAI: India’s rise isn’t just making headlines, it’s headlining its own summit, and this time the guest list reads like a global power playlist. News18 Network will host the Rising Bharat Summit 2026, a high-powered thought-leadership forum anchored around the theme “Spotlighting Bharat’s Rise: Driven by Strength Within.” The two-day event kicks off on 27 February 2026 at 10:00 AM in New Delhi, bringing together policymakers, diplomats, business leaders, strategists, innovators, and cultural icons for conversations that aim to define India’s confident, self-assured role on the world stage.
Prime minister Narendra Modi will deliver the keynote address, setting the tone for discussions on economic momentum, geopolitical positioning, and long-term aspirations for the decade ahead.
The ministerial lineup includes Piyush Goyal (Commerce and Industry), Ashwini Vaishnaw (Railways, Information & Broadcasting, Electronics & IT), Jyotiraditya M. Scindia (Communications & Development of North Eastern Region), and Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta.
Global diplomacy and strategic voices feature former Singapore foreign minister George Yeo, ex-UK Chief of defence staff general Sir Nick Carter, former US commerce secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez, and ambassadors from Norway (May-Elin Stener), Germany (Philipp Ackermann), and Sweden (Jan Thesleff).
Industry, innovation, and economic perspectives come from veteran investor Ramesh Damani, World Gold Council CEO David Tait, Vianai Systems Founder & CEO Dr Vishal Sikka, and Deeptech Bharat Foundation co-founder Shashi Shekhar Vempati.
Defence, technology, and thought leadership include Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh, RSS Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh Sunil Ambekar, Apple expert Patrick McGee, military aviation historian Tom Cooper, and defence scholar Adrian Fontanellaz.
Culture, sports, and popular influence bring actor-MP Kangana Ranaut, Olympic medallists Saina Nehwal and PR Sreejesh, cricketers Mohammed Shami, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Mithali Raj, plus film stars Anil Kapoor and Yami Gautam.
Broadcast live across News18 Network channels, CNBC-TV18, CNBC Awaaz, and streaming platforms from 10:00 am on both days, the summit aims to move beyond headlines and shape deeper narratives around policy, leadership, and innovation at a decisive moment for India’s global trajectory.
In a world watching Bharat’s next moves, this gathering isn’t just talk, it’s the opening scene of a story that’s already rewriting the script.
