News Broadcasting
BBC World News and bbc.com announce month of China specials programmes
MUMBAI: BBC World News and bbc.com have announced the launch of a month-long season of programmes focusing on China. Designed in China, will be shown on TV and online from 6th October to 2nd November 2014. It will explore how China is innovating across a range of sectors from medical research and science, through consumer technology to the creative world of film and art.
Global consumers are familiar with the “Made in China” label, but the BBC asks how long it will be before “Designed in China” becomes the mantra. China is continuing its rise and emergence as the world’s second superpower, and a range of specially commissioned specials for TV and online asks whether it can surpass its U.S., European and North Asian competitors.
Liz Gibbons, Commissioning Editor, Editorial, BBC Global News Ltd, says: “Innovation has been the engine of economic growth, and lies at the heart of increased living standards; unsurprisingly, the impressive recent growth in innovation in emerging economies has been led by China. The BBC has called on its unrivalled network of bureaux in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong and on its China experts and correspondents to report on what China is doing to get ahead of the rest, and whether this increase in innovative activity will come at the expense of the West.”
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.
