News Broadcasting
BBC to launch second series of ‘The Tudors’
MUMBAI: BBC has acquired the rights of the second series of The Tudors. The second series will air on BBC2 next year.
Starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers as a young Henry VIII, the series chronicles his life and that of his close coterie of advisors, minions and lovers.
Shot in Ireland, the series will take in the English Reformation and the destruction of the Catholic Church in England. It will also feature Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne Boleyn, who delivers him a child and also the arrival of Jane Seymour in the Queen’s chamber.
Creator Michael Hirst said,”At the end of the first series of The Tudors, we stood at the edge of the precipice; in the second series we jump right off it.There are old and new conflicts, both at court and outside it, where the rapid changes to social life bring turmoil and sometimes tragedy.”
BBC controller of programme acquisitions George McGhee added,”We are extremely pleased with our viewers’ positive reactions to The Tudors and have subsequently acquired series two for transmission in 2008.”
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.
