News Broadcasting
Sun TV brands FM radio stations as ‘S FM’; launches 3 more stations
MUMBAI: The southern media emperor Kalanithi Maran has finally made its official entry into the private radio FM operations under the second phase by unveiling the brand name and the frequency.
The FM radio operations managed through its subsidiaries Kal Radio Ltd and South Asia FM Ltd will run stations under the brand name ‘S FM’.
Starting 6 November, the company will launch three more FM stations on 93.5 MHz FM in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Jaipur.
Sun will be the fifth player in Bangalore and competing for mindspace with players like Radio City, Radio Mirchi, Radio One and Big 92.7 FM.
In Hyderabad too, Sun will be battling out with the existing players — Radio Mirchi, Radio City and Big 92.7FM. While, in Jaipur, Sun will be sharing the space with Radio City, Radio Mirchi, Radio Tadka and MY FM.
With this, the total FM Stations of Sun TV group operational goes to seven as it already operates FM stations in Chennai, Coimbatore, Tirunelveli and Visakhapatnam.
Works of another 38 FM Stations are in progress as it has retained 45 FM Radio stations across India out of 68 FM stations successfully bid.
Maran will operate 46 stations across the country through Sun TV Ltd’s two subsidiaries, Kal Radio and South Asia FM. Sun TV owns 89 per cent in Kal Radio and 94.91 per cent in South Asia FM. Maran holds 10.5 per cent in Kal Radio and 5.1 per cent in South Asia FM.
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.
