News Broadcasting
Crest Animation’s US subsidiary to partner with ME & LGFE for movie
MUMBAI: Crest Animation Studios and its wholly owned US subsidiary RichCrest Animation are getting into an end-to-end production deal valued at around $2 million for an international 3D direct-to-video feature film.
RichCrest has partnered with Mainframe Entertainment (ME) and Lions Gate to create Arthur’s Missing Pal, a film based on the character created by best-selling author Marc Brown. The animation work will be done by Crest Animation Studios in India while RichCrest will be engaged in pre and post production activities.
“It is a very important project for us as we are involved in the end-to-end production process along with our subsidiary RichCrest. Though this is a work-for-hire project, it will be a step towards bigger film ventures. The deal is worth around $2 million,” Crest Animation chief financial officer Vinayak Purohit tells Indiantelevision.com.
Mainframe Entertainment will co-produce the film. It has also acquired international distribution rights for the all-new CG animated direct-to-video film.
IDT Entertainment Sales (IDTeS) will sell international distribution rights for the film on behalf of Mainframe.
RichCrest Animation will produce the film with Mainframe, along with Marc Brown Studios and WGBH Boston. The film will mark the first time that the beloved aardvark will come to life in 3D CG animation. IDTeS will handle international distribution for Mainframe and will launch the property at Mipcom. Lions Gate Family Entertainment will handle US distribution, with a scheduled delivery of spring 2006.
“The opportunity to be working with such high profile names from the mainstream entertainment Industry is a privilege. This falls perfectly in line with Crest’s laid down objective of associating with the best names in the global entertainment industry while moving up the value chain from delivering to television series to Direct to Home Feature, Gaming and Features,” said Crest Animation Studios chief executive officer A K Madhavan.
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.
