News Broadcasting
BBC sacks 60 people in its news department
MUMBAI:In a major cost cutting drive aimed at reducing redundancies, BBC bosses are axing 60 jobs in the news operation. More jobs may be lost when BBC’s Ceefax and online news services merge at the beginning of next year. In addition a recruitment freeze has been imposed across the entire BBC news department.
The redundancies come as the BBC director general, Greg Dyke, seeks to save ?160m across the entire corporation, states a BBC report.
“Spiralling costs and changes in programme requirements and aspirations are the main causes of the unexpected redundancies” BBC , newsgathering chief Adrian van Klaveren is quoted as having said in the report. Twenty-six jobs will go within the BBC’s newsgathering department, where significant changes will be made to balance the budget and meet changing editorial requirements, the report adds.
The budget shortfall in the news division is estimated to be about ?15m. However the deficit is in addition to last year’s overspend in the news budget following September 11, the war on terrorism and the Bali bombing.
“We understand people are very anxious to know the outcome and we will do everything we can to move this forward as quickly as possible in order to allay the uncertainties which everyone will be feeling,” commented Klaveren.
Interestingly, the report further reveals that BBC director of news, Richard Sambrook, had written to his department’s 3,300 staff inviting them to consider voluntary redundancy at the end of last year.
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.
