News Broadcasting
Turner spruces Pogo to meet competition
MUMBAI: It’s time to gear up for competition, existing and imminent. Pogo, the five month old children’s channel from Turner, is ready with phase II of its programming.
Pre-production of five half hour live action shows has already commenced, and the channel has sounded out seven domestic production houses for concepts for original shows. According to Turner International India MD Anshuman Misra, a crack team of professionals to oversee the creative work has already been put into place.
Among Pogo’s ambitious localisation initiatives is a decision to ramp up its languaging options, dramatically increasing Hindi on the channel. By the end of 2004, 80 per cent of Pogo’s programming will be in Hindi. Currently, Pogo offers two hours of Telugu, but is eyeing Tamil as well.
Pogo, according to Misra, will also introduce an Indianised version of one of the non animated and internationally produced shows already on air on Pogo, and is looking to partner with Indian production houses to remake the show with local talent.
Claming a reach of 15 million cable and satellite homes in India, Pogo has gone a notch higher programming wise by announcing its decision to launch Prime Pogo, a two and half hour block on Fridays that will be anchored by 24 year old Niall Sadh and 22 year old Nisha Lalvani.
Prime Pogo will have its curtain raiser on 28 May, the day the first major acquisition by Turner for Pogo, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, is telecast. Turner has invested heavily in promoting Potter mania, through cable channels, kids’ publications, billboards, emails through kids’ databases as well as below the line activities like flyer s in cinema halls and a contest that allows the winner a chance to visit England.
The Pogo model, according to Misra has worked well in the first few months of its existence, by garnering a reach of 15 million households to Cartoon Network’s 18 million. Derived loosely from the internationally successful Nickelodeon format, Pogo is now flexing its muscles to take on Nick in India, which too has risen from slumber and is armouring its arsenal.
Misra says he would welcome competition, claiming it would help grow the market. For now, of course, he says Pogo’s the way to go.
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.
