News Broadcasting
Zapak.com ropes in Bipasha Basu; launches Zapak.tv
MUMBAI: Zapak Digital Entertainment Ltd., a Reliance ADAG venture company, has roped in Bollywood actress Bipasha Basu, such that the gaming website Zapak.com would feature a ‘Bipasha Basu zone’ with games based on the actress.
The portal has also unveiled a new feature called Zapak.tv, which claims to be the first of its kind audio-visual content on the gaming Industry. From trends, to game reviews, to special previews, cheat codes, behind the scenes in the making of games, gaming events, celeb chats, gaming countdowns to even gaming jockeys. Zapak.tv would also enable customers to share their thoughts and opinions on games.
Players will be able to host gaming related video content on Zapak.tv by writing to it and sending across their videos, informs an official release.
For the association, Bipasha would work closely with the Zapak Team to conceptualize some of the games. The site claims to explore the adventurous gamer personality of Bipasha and the first in the line of several games is an action game titled ‘Beach Blaze’. The player will have to pose as Bipasha Basu at a beachside skating challenge, while the actress has to defend herself from the bad guys in the game using equipment that she comes across while skating. Bipasha also faces hurdles and uses features to upgrade the actions. The company also adds that other games featuring Bipasha are in the pipeline.
Announcing the association, Reliance Entertainment Ltd. president Rajesh Sawhney said, “Bollywood is probably the biggest craze in India. Every Indian wishes he or she was an actor. We at Zapak.com are helping the visitors on our website play out their fantasy, by letting them be or play with their favorite star. First, it was Salman Khan for Zapak.com. We already have a game on him online, ‘Puppy Razi’. Now, it is Bipasha Basu in a game called ‘Beach Blaze’ where Bipasha will be seen in her action avatar.”
Speaking about this association, Bipasha Basu said, “I am excited about my association with Zapak. I love action and adventure, an element of my personality which was always hidden; with this association I can interpret those elements. I’m represented in an action form in ‘Beach Blaze’, the first game in which I get to participate in a skating challenge. This game has further strengthened my belief in how exciting action can be; therefore I will work closely with the team at Zapak to conceptualize some more games and will don the ‘action / adventure girl’ hat for them.”
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.
