News Broadcasting
BBC’s show ‘Panorama’ reveals the problem of online gambling in the UK
MUMBAI: UK pubcaster the BBC says that its show Panorama has uncovered figures which show that an average of 5.8 million people a month visited online gambling sites from April to September 2006. The show airs this weekend in the UK.
The statistics from the internet media and market research company Nielsen/Net Ratings show that in May there were more than six million visitors to online gambling sites.
Independent research commissioned by the Government claims that there are only 1 million regular UK online gamblers. Professor Jim Orford, an addiction expert, tells Panorama the Government is being ‘naive’ and ‘playing dice’ with people’s health over its plans to liberalise gambling laws.
He has predicted that up to one million people a year could become hooked on internet gambling because of the Gambling Act 2005. The Act becomes law in September 2007.
Professor Orford, who works at Birmingham University, told Panorama, “Gradually we’re going to realise it’s a much bigger problem than we thought. More people are going to know friends and family members who’ve got problems. Health authorities are going to be under pressure to provide treatment.
“We could be talking about a million people affected by it in any one period of 12 months, and that begins to put it on a par with drug addiction problems.”
UK Minister for Sport Richard Caborn said, “We have, I believe, acted responsibly in bringing an Act onto the statute book, which has three basic principles on which it is based; protecting the vulnerable, keeping it crime free and making sure that those who have a bet will be paid out and it’ll be a fair bet. That is what it is predicated on because we believe that gambling is now part of our leisure industry.”
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.
