News Broadcasting
TV and film actor Sidharth Shukla passes away at 40
Mumbai: Popular TV and film actor Sidharth Shukla has passed away at the age of 40. He was admitted to Cooper Hospital on Thursday after suffering a heart attack. The hospital confirmed his death on arrival and post mortem and police procedures are underway, according to a PTI report.
Shukla made his TV debut on the Hindi show “Babul Ka Aangann Chootey Na” in 2008. He has appeared on shows like “CID” and “Love U Zindagi”. He is best known for his appearance on “Balika Vadhu” where he played the lead.
Shukla has also made several appearances on reality TV including shows including “Jhalak Dikhla Jaa 6″, “Khatron Ke Khiladi 7″, and “Bigg Boss 13″.
He made his film debut with Dharma Productions’ “Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania” where he played a supporting role.
The actor was last seen in Ekta Kapoor’s “Broken But Beautiful 3” in which he played the role of Agastya.
He is survived by his mother and two sisters.
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: 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.
