News Broadcasting
BBC to launch radio amnesty campaign for Africa
MUMBAI: On 6 July 2005, the BBC launches a radio amnesty in aid of African nations – fronted by presenter Nick Knowles – in which listeners can receive discounts on DAB radios.
The BBC’s digital radio team and BBC Radio Five Live have teamed up with manufacturers and high street retailers across the country to offer listeners a discount of 10 per cent on a new digital radio, when they trade in their portable FM sets.
The old sets will then be reconditioned and sent to Somalia and south Sudan, where they will be distributed by the BBC World Service Trust. The amnesty starts on 6 July and lasts until 26 July, during which time Five Live will support the project on air and around a thousand stores up and down the country will take part. Knowles – already recognised for his work with Comic and Sport Relief – is promoting the campaign on behalf of the BBC and will be raising the project’s profile.
He said, “A disused radio set, gathering dust in a spare room in Tunbridge Wells, could end up making a real difference to a family in Somalia. Every set that is traded in will help the educational projects the World Service Trust runs in Africa.”
BBC Radio and Music Interactive controller Simon Nelson says, “We’re delighted to be working with retailers, manufacturers and the World Service Trust on this project. Everyone involved benefits from this initiative: consumers get a discount, DAB radios sales will increase, and it all helps to support some of the fantastic work the World Service Trust is doing in Africa.”
Retailers will accept battery-powered FM/AM radios (not hi-fi separates or mains only sets), which will be reconditioned, fitted with new batteries and shipped for distribution by the BBC World Service Trust and its partner, the African Educational Trust (AET). The trust and the AET will use the radios to further their work on the Somalia Distance Education for Literacy project – or ‘Radio Teacher’ – which offers education to men and women who have grown up during civil war with no chance of schooling.
There is a shortage of Somali teachers and there are few western volunteers, so the only choice is to use the mass media. The BBC states that radio is by far the most widespread medium in Somalia,.
The project teaches literacy through discussions of issues like human rights, health and environmental protection, and has been a great success, with 10,000 people registering for the first teaching cycle. Given the success of the first phase of literacy training in Somalia, the series is now being run for a second time, with a further 7,000 students signing up. The BBC World Service Trust and AET are also planning to replicate the literacy project for the south Sudanese audience and are also exploring the possibility of training farmers and teachers using similar techniques.
The more radios made available to audiences in Somalia and Sudan, the more students will be able to benefit from these projects.
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: 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.
