News Broadcasting
Mark Burnett plays ‘Devil’s Advocate’ for Sci Fi Channel
MUMBAI: US broadcaster Sci Fi Channel has unveiled a slate of original series and miniseries. Reality TV guru Mark Burnett The Apprentice and Dreamworks Television will make Devil’s Advocate.
This is a one-hour conspiracy thriller about a theology professor who is thrust into the world of secret societies, religious espionage and genetic research.
Hired by a global corporation, but motivated by his own personal search for the truth, the professor forms an eclectic team of ‘devil’s advocates’ who are charged with deciding whether bizarre cases can be explained naturally, or whether there are larger, more supernatural forces at work.
The channel will also unveil a miniseries Outpost. It centers on a group of private explorers in the near future, that takes over an abandoned Nasa research base after the government has abandoned space exploration as too expensive. The intrepid explorers travel to a distant planet in our solar system to establish a potentially lucrative off-world colony. But, the real adventure begins when they discover an ancient artifact buried deep beneath the planet’s surface.
News Broadcasting
Book Cricket gets a digital century on News18 amid T20 fever
Nostalgic classroom game revamped in English, Hindi plus Telugu on web and app.
MUMBAI: When the T20 World Cup fever hits fever pitch, News18 decides to flip the script straight back to the classroom. The digital news platform has revived the timeless schoolyard favourite Book Cricket as an interactive online game, perfectly timed to ride the cricket wave gripping fans across the globe. The reimagined Book Cricket ditches textbooks for smartphones, blending old-school nostalgia with modern gameplay. Once a sneaky recess pastime played by flicking book pages to score runs, the digital version now offers seamless fun for anyone craving a quick cricket fix between overs.
Available in English, Hindi and Telugu (with more languages planned across News18’s network), the game sits within the platform’s fast-growing gaming portfolio of over 20 titles, all built in-house. It joins event-driven hits like ‘Kursi Catcher’ and ‘Result Rewind’ during the 2025 Bihar Assembly Elections, plus festive specials such as ‘Durga’s Astras’ for Durga Puja and ‘Mouse Modak’ for Ganesh Chaturthi.
News18 Digital CEO Mitul Sangani said, “Gaming is a key pillar of our engagement strategy. At News18, we uniquely combine our newsroom agility with immersive gaming experiences. By blending credible content with interactive formats, we are creating meaningful engagement in an era defined by shrinking attention spans and evolving consumption habits.”
Select titles have expanded beyond News18.com to CNBC-TV18.com and Firstpost.com, reflecting the network’s push to deepen user interaction across platforms. The Book Cricket game is live now at https://www.news18.com/games/book-cricket/.
In a tournament where every boundary counts, News18’s digital Book Cricket proves the simplest games can still deliver the biggest smiles no syllabus required, just pure cricket joy one page-flip at a time.
