News Broadcasting
Vijay TV brings ‘KBC’ in Tamil
MUMBAI: Now you can catch King Khan mouthing the words ‘Vanakkam; neengal parthukondu irupadhu Kaun Banega Crorepathi’. Star Plus’ Kaun Banega Crorepati will be dubbed in Tamil and telecast on Vijay TV for its Tamil viewers starting 23rd January.
Auditions for the dubbing artistes on the show are on in full swing. The search for SRK’s Tamil dubbing artiste is also to be finalised, a company release sates.
Says Vijay TV general manager Ravinath Menon, “The question promos are on high rotation on Vijay TV giving Tamil viewers equal opportunity to be part of the show. We hope, in this season, we will see more Tamil viewers get into the hot seat with Shah Rukh and play for the highest prize money. We are also planning different interactive plug-ins around the Tamil version to make it more interesting to Vijay viewers.”
The show starts 23 January and will be telecast from Tuesday to Friday at 7pm, a time band that was popularized by the channel’s successful show Swamy Iyappan. Advertising clients lining up include Airtel, Hyundai, Motorola, KRBL, HDFC Standard Life, Univercell and Cadbury.
The release quotes Univercell Telecommunications managing director Satish Babu as saying, “KBC and SRK are two big brands with immense popularity; more so as Shahrukh Khan takes on the role of the Big B, the expectations and interest levels are that much higher; especially among the youth. Vijay TV with its differentiated and innovative programming is the right platform for Univercell to be a part of.”
KBC will be supported by an extensive on ground campaign spread across various media; with hoardings in Chennai and a road show in three cities; Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai. Specially designed KBC merchandise will be distributed to its active audience during the road activity.
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.
