News Broadcasting
Suvarna News moves to new office, announces content changes
BANGALORE: Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s Kannada news channel, Suvarna News 24×7, has moved to a new premise in Bangalore.
The new office and studio were inaugurated by the current Karnataka Chief m Minister Jagdish Shettar who also read out the 9 am bulletin.
As a part of the celebrations, Karnataka law minister Suresh Kumar turned a journalist and interviewed on screen all the senior staff members of Suvarna. Bangalore City Mayor presented the city news bulletin- ‘Bangalore First’; Sandalwood actor Upendra presented the Prime Time News @ 9 pm. Actress Bhavana interviewed Karnataka Minsiter Sobha Karanlaje for a women’s program, ‘Suhasini’.
Actor Sudeep was besieged with questions by six lady anchors of Suvarna on a chit chat program.
Suvarna News Editor in Chief Vishweshwar Bhat said, “Change, according to the trend, is a must and change is a mark of creativity. We are changing not only the offices, studios and looks but also in terms of content and style of presentation. We will make our viewers part of this change by taking their suggestions and implementing them wherever and whenever necessary.”
Suvarna News CEO Suresh Selvaraj said, “Shifting of the studios was an opportunity for us to bring in changes along with it. The changeover of the studios was such a smooth and seamless process. Perhaps it is very rare and may be the first time in the country that not a single second was lost in transmission during the shifting of a running, 24×7 news channel. We have also changed a whole lot of our programs and the general look & feel of the channel. I am confident that the new looks would appeal to our viewers and make our brand presence much wider. We have used our own channel to promote awareness. What else could be better than the 5 million reach that we have got?. We have taken outdoor as support media.”
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.
