News Broadcasting
MTV Asia awards gets Sugarbabes, A*Mei, Sammi Cheng, Machi
MUMBAI: What do you add to an event that is to be held on ‘romantic’ Valentine’s Day? But of course some oomph.
The MTV Asia Awards 2004 has roped in sexy British pop princesses, Sugababes, Taiwanese songbird, Chang Hui Mei (affectionately known as A*Mei) and Canto Pop ‘queen’ Sammi Cheng for the MTV Asia Awards 2004 to be held at Singapore’s Indoor Stadium on Valentine’s Day.
Besides the babe quotient, the award ceremony will also include the musical act of hip-hop group, Machi. The all boy group lives by ‘Hip-hop is an attitude and way of life’ motto. The Taiwanese band have added a unique twist to hip-hop, and created a new identity in the music scene, says a company release.
Hosted by Michelle Branch and Vanness Wu, the event boats of a glittering list of stars including 5566, Black Eyed Peas, Blue, Gareth Gates, Liberty X, Simple Plan, Stacie Orrico, Han Hong and Sun Nan (China); Iwan Fals, Mocca and Audy (Indonesia); BoA (Korea); Too Phat, Siti Sarah, Misha Omar and Siti Nurhaliza (Malaysia); Rivermaya (Philippines) and Tanya Chua.
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.
