News Broadcasting
James Gandolfini signs exclusive producing deal with HBO
MUMBAI: Actor James Gandolfini, who stars in HBO’s gangster saga The Sopranos, has signed a three-year exclusive producing deal with the US broadcaster.
The agreement marks the first overall production deal for Gandolfini, who along with his producing partner, former Paramount executive Alex Ryan, is simultaneously launching his production shingle, Attaboy Films. Under this exclusive producing arrangement, Gandolfini will develop and produce original television programming for HBO and will also have a first-look deal for feature projects at Picturehouse, HBO’s specialty film distribution arm.
HBO chairman and CEO Chris Albrecht says, “The Sopranos is a landmark in TV, and the gifted James Gandolfini is one of the reasons for the show’s remarkable success. I am delighted that he will continue to work with the network after the end of the series.”
Gandolfini and Ryan have spent the past year developing Hemingway, a biopic written by Barbara Turner, with Gandolfini playing the title role in the film. Philip Kaufman (Quills, The Unbearable Lightness of Being) is attached to direct the drama about the tempestuous romance between Hemingway and war correspondent Martha Gellhorn. Turner, whose screen credits include Pollock and Georgia, will produce along with Gandolfini, Ryan and Peter Kaufman. Gandolfini’s managers, Nancy Sanders and Mark Armstrong, will be executive producers. The project is expected to continue development under Attaboy’s new deal, which also includes a commitment to two pilot scripts.
Gandolfini and Ryan are also developing a documentary with HBO Documentary Films. The film, whose working title is Occupation Iraq, is about soldiers in Iraq and chronicles their stories, tragedies, triumphs and homecomings.
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.
