News Broadcasting
BBC Prime launches in Singapore next month
MUMBAI: BBC Prime will launch in Singapore on StarHub Cable TV tomorrow 1 September 2005.
StarHub will package BBC Prime together with four new channels under the Family Plus group of digital channels. The Family Plus group of 14 channels is available at $12 a month to cable subscribers who have a digital set-top box. The channel began its Asian rollout in December, and is currently available in Hong Kong and Thailand.
The channel will feature comedy and drama programming such as Fawlty Towers, Keeping Up Appearances, The Weakest Link, Top Gear Xtra and Top Of The Pops. StarHub states that it remains committed to offering its cable TV customers the best and most comprehensive range of programmes on Singapore television. BBC Prime offers great British programming that is specially tailored for the Asian audience, and the addition of this channel will help to feed its subscribers’ demand for content diversity.
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.
