News Broadcasting
WB to spruce line-up with television movies
MUMBAI: American Girl , the line of period dolls from Mattel, is coming to life as a series of TV movies for the WB network courtesy Julia Roberts. Christopher Reeve will also return to WB’s Smallville as Dr Virgil Swann. In India, the show airs on Star World.
A USA Today report says that a holiday-themed movie based on the doll Samantha will air on the network in November. The programme initiative is in line with the broadcaster’s decision to concentrate on young women and girls.
Mattel will provide inputs on casting and scripts. It also plans to release a DVD version shortly after its WB premiere. In India, animation movies based on its toy Barbie have aired on Cartoon Network.
Another report in Reuters indicated that reality themed shows will be a part of the lineup. They include The Surreal Life which is a version of MTV’s Real World.
The report has also stated that the nine year old network, owned by Time Warner and Tribune has announced that cable veteran Tana Nugent Jamieson will be in charge of original movie programming. As a senior VP for programming and made-for-TV movies, she will report to WB’s executive vice president for drama development, Carolyn Bernstein.
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.
