News Broadcasting
First ever McDonalds – Disney Hour Kids’ awards announced
Buena Vista Television India (BVTI) has tied up with McDonalds for the first ever McDonalds-Disney Hour Kids’ Awards.
The awards are an opportunity for children to nominate and reward their own favourites across seven categories, viz Hindi movie, Bollywood actor, Bollywood actress, sports star, Hindi movie song, Disney Hour toon and comic book.
Five selected nominees in each category have been chosen by a panel, which was appointed by a legal body by BVTI. However, the young voters can also select their own nominees in case their favourites do not figure among the selected nominees. Voting forms will be made available to children under 14 years at MacDonalds’ outlets with Happy Meals and also at select schools in Mumbai, Pune, New Delhi and Jaipur. Forms, according to an official release, are also available at www.indiatimes.com, cosponsors for the awards along with Maaza.
Television commercials on Disney Hour daily at 6 pm on Sony detail voting modalities and include Early Bird prizes for the first few voters every week. In another first, voters will also get to present the awards to the winners. Four lucky children will meet and present the McDonalds-Disney Hour Kids Award to their star winner in four of the categories – Actor, Actress, Movie (producer) and Sportsperson. Voting is open till 24 January, 2002.
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.
