News Broadcasting
Star Plus rejigs ‘Khullja Sim Sim’ format
MUMBAI: It seems Star Plus does not believe in resting on its laurels. The channel has decided to revamp year-old game show Khullja Sim Sim in a bid to ensure continuing viewer interest.
Khullja… going in for a makeover continues the makeover strategy that programming head Tarun Katial has been instituting for a number of the popular shows on Star Plus.
Khullja…, based on the popular worldwide format Lets Make a Deal, has now introduced a chance for contestants to play from one episode to the next, for the jackpot. Khullja.., currently in its second year, with over 65 episodes already telecast, will now have host Aman Verma raising the stakes for the ultimate jackpot. For example, the winner of one episode could trade his win for say a car, or a bigger prize, two cars, in the next episode. As the contestant keeps trading, week after week, he could land up with a mega jackpot – the grand luxury Hyundai Sonata car.
According to an official release, Manish, a participant was the first to take up the latest offer, and play for a higher value jackpot prize. He played from one episode to another, until he turned his initial prize of Rs 200,000 to Rs 500,000.
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.
