News Broadcasting
Harbhajan Mann is etc’s latest Pop Ki Aandhi
Popular bhangra pop singer Harbhajan Mann (not to be confused with cricket star Harbhajan Singh) is music channel etc's Pop Ki Aandhi for the second half of this month.
Harbhajan's latest album is called Haaye Meri Billo. He will appear on the channel on Thursday 20 December at 7:30 pm and Wednesday 26 December at 8 pm.
Pop Ki Aandhi is a slot that the channel reserves for musicians who are making waves with their music. Each month, two artistes are showcased in each fortnights.
Born in Punjab, Harbhajan Mann spent his formative years in Vancouver, Canada. So it is not surprising to learn that ice hockey and not cricket is his favourite sport. He has returned to India after 15 years and has wasted no time establishing himself as a major force to be reckoned with in the bhangra-pop music scene.
Some of his songs that are popular include Oye hoye, Cham Cham and Husnu Jawani malomal. He has also worked on the playback for the Hindi movie Papa The Great. He admires Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai and lets on that he will start acting sometime next year.
He has this to say about which kind of music he prefers working on, "It all depends on the pasteurization of a song. As long as the video of a non-film song is good, I don't find anything wrong with it. Sometimes, I get offers to do playback, but then what's the point singing a good song for others. I prefer doing it for myself".
Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was his role model. Considering the exuberance he exudes on stage, it is suprising to learn that he feels shy in front of the camera. However, he says that a live crowd charges him up. He describes himself as a "humble, down-to-earth good human being."
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.
