News Broadcasting
Close Koouka wins 2013 Mip Junior International Pitch
CANNES: Apart from content, Mip Junior’s biggest draw is an opportunity to present new intellectual properties (IPs) to a larger, more discerning audience.
This year, of the 60 new projects vying for top honours at the international competition, Mip Junior International Pitch – New Projects for Kids TV, five made it to the final round and one of them was declared winner i.e. Koouka by Aldebaran Distribution and Vallaround, Italy.
Presented by distributor Anna d’ Alessandro and producer Federico Vallarino, Koouka is the story of a chameleon, which changes the colour, shape and size of the things it touches. Replete with funny gags and sans any dialogue, the series’ theme is identity and how a natural desire to be accepted by others can stop people from expressing their real selves. Interestingly, there are 26 episodes, each of one minute duration.
The other four who made it to the top five include Being Zeth by Source Animation, India; Goris the Gorilla by Split, Brazil and Chile; Nelly and Nora by Geronimo, Ireland; and The Little Train Choo Choo by JM Animation, Korea.
The jury comprised BBC head of CBeebies production, animation and acquisition Alison Stewart; Canal+ head of children programmes and channels Laurence Blaevoet; The Walt Disney Company (South East Asia), India head of acquisitions, programming, branded media and content Anand Roy; Globosat Programadora head of content and programming Paula Taborda dos Guaranys; and Kenn Viselmann Presents CEO/owner Kenn Viselman.
The jury looked for projects with potential for TV and multi-platform brand extensions, as well as originality and overall appeal in the storytelling technique, and Koouka bagged the award. Winners will get free access to Mip TV 2014 and a chance to interact with buyers during the main networking event on 6 October.
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.
