News Broadcasting
Reality show ‘Big Brother’ draws the ire of Australian authorities
MUMBAI: The reality show Big Brother has run into hot water in Australia. The show is about a group of individuals living in a house and then getting voted out each week.
In a controversial incident a few days ago, two contestants were thrown out of the show and the police were called in. Media reports indicate that one man held down a woman while another rubbed his crotch in her face.
Not surprisingly, influential figures have criticised the show. Some have asked Channel 10 to take the show off the air. Australian Prime Minister John Howard got on the front foot saying that in the interest of good taste, the show should no longer be aired.
Besides concern that the show sets a bad example, the Casey Pastors Network says that the drunk and sexual behaviour of contestants is having an adverse effect on the City of Casey’s youth. Instead, the broadcaster should have shows that motivate Australia’s youth to excel in life.
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.
