News Broadcasting
BBC World News to air Intelligence Squared debates
MUMBAI: BBC World News is set to launch Intelligence Squared, a series of topical debates, taking place in London and New York, which are set to stimulate and challenge the channel’s audience across the world.
Intelligence Squared is an established debate forum founded in the UK six years ago. It attracts many speakers and includes audience participation and a vote on the outcome.
The first debate’s motion is ‘George W Bush is the worst American president of the last fifty years.’
The channel will telecast the debate from 10 January and speakers include Bush’s former deputy chief of staff Karl Rove; The Weekly Standard editor William Kristol; The Bush Tragedy author Jacob Weisberg; and British journalist Simon Jenkins.
This will be followed in February with a debate from London, with the motion ‘The United Nations is terminally paralysed: the democratic world needs a forum of its own.’ In March the motion will be ‘Major carbon reductions are not worth the money.’
The debates will be chaired by BBC World News presenter Zeinab Badawi in London and ABC News’ John Donvan in New York.
BBC World News commissioning editor Mary Wilkinson says, “We are excited about broadcasting the Intelligence Squared debates to the BBC World News audience. Combining current and provocative issues with high-profile panellists, we are confident the series will appeal to the channel’s 78 million weekly viewers around the globe.”
Intelligence Squared, which broadcasts on radio in the US, is an initiative of the Rosenkranz foundation. Chairman Robert Rosenkranz says, “The BBC World News series will engage a global television audience in the same high level discourse that radio listeners in the US have so appreciated.”
The US debates are produced by Dana Wolfe, a former producer at ABC News Nightline.
News Broadcasting
Book Cricket gets a digital century on News18 amid T20 fever
Nostalgic classroom game revamped in English, Hindi plus Telugu on web and app.
MUMBAI: When the T20 World Cup fever hits fever pitch, News18 decides to flip the script straight back to the classroom. The digital news platform has revived the timeless schoolyard favourite Book Cricket as an interactive online game, perfectly timed to ride the cricket wave gripping fans across the globe. The reimagined Book Cricket ditches textbooks for smartphones, blending old-school nostalgia with modern gameplay. Once a sneaky recess pastime played by flicking book pages to score runs, the digital version now offers seamless fun for anyone craving a quick cricket fix between overs.
Available in English, Hindi and Telugu (with more languages planned across News18’s network), the game sits within the platform’s fast-growing gaming portfolio of over 20 titles, all built in-house. It joins event-driven hits like ‘Kursi Catcher’ and ‘Result Rewind’ during the 2025 Bihar Assembly Elections, plus festive specials such as ‘Durga’s Astras’ for Durga Puja and ‘Mouse Modak’ for Ganesh Chaturthi.
News18 Digital CEO Mitul Sangani said, “Gaming is a key pillar of our engagement strategy. At News18, we uniquely combine our newsroom agility with immersive gaming experiences. By blending credible content with interactive formats, we are creating meaningful engagement in an era defined by shrinking attention spans and evolving consumption habits.”
Select titles have expanded beyond News18.com to CNBC-TV18.com and Firstpost.com, reflecting the network’s push to deepen user interaction across platforms. The Book Cricket game is live now at https://www.news18.com/games/book-cricket/.
In a tournament where every boundary counts, News18’s digital Book Cricket proves the simplest games can still deliver the biggest smiles no syllabus required, just pure cricket joy one page-flip at a time.
