News Broadcasting
NATPE announces entry submission for video, film prodn awards
MUMBAI: The National Association of Television Programme Executives’ (NATPE) Educational Foundation in the US has announced that it is accepting submissions for its annual Student Video and Film Production Awards.
The awards are sponsored by the Lippin Family Trust. The deadline for student submissions is 3 May.
The awards recognise excellence in the production of student video and film projects worldwide. Entries will be judged based on concept, execution and creativity, and are open to any full-time, matriculated undergraduate college student. Entries must be a student-produced video or film production and be related to the applicant’s school or university.
The videos cannot exceed two minutes in length. Submissions may be fiction or non-fiction and take any form (commercials, public service announcements, human interest stories, biographies, interviews, cultural events, etc.).
A $3,000 cash prize will be awarded to the winner along with a matching donation to the student’s academic department. In addition, the faculty or staff supervisor listed with the winning entry will be included as a faculty fellow at NATPE’s annual conference next year.
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.
