News Broadcasting
Star Chinese Channel to debut SPTI’s Game Show Format
MUMBAI: Singapore cable TV audiences will soon be able to enjoy Sony Pictures Television International’s (SPTI) unscripted game show format Blackjack Bowling on Star Chinese Channel, a popular entertainment channel in Taiwan.
Called Lucky Star and hosted by well-known TV personality Hu Gua, the game show’s premiere is on the back of Star Chinese Channel’s launch on StarHub on 2 October, 2006, and marks the first broadcast of the game show outside Taiwan.
The channel will broadcast 130 episodes of the first season of Lucky Star in Singapore. When the channel first launched Lucky Star in Taiwan in June 2005, it registered an audience of 6.6 million, and a 31-percent reach in viewership in the first three months. Since then, it has consistently been ranked among the top three most watched game shows on pay TV channels in Taiwan.
The success of the first season led Star to license 212 episodes in the second season.
Blackjack Bowling is the only show of its kind that combines two of the world’s favorite pastimes – blackjack and bowling. Just as the two simple elements of the roulette wheel and hangman were combined to create Wheel Of Fortune, SPTI united two activities that are popular throughout the world. Blackjack Bowling’s format is flexible and can be played in either a 30-minute or 60-minute format.
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.
