News Broadcasting
Sun to launch FM station Suryan from two cities on 7 March
MUMBAI: The stage is set for Kalanithi Maran’s Sun Network to launch its Tamil FM radio station Suryan.
Suryan will launch simultaneously in two cities in Tamil Nadu, Coimbatore and Tirunelveli on 7 March. The launch of the station in the state capital has been scheduled for mid-April, an official release says.
Both Coimbatore and Chennai stations will broadcast on wavelength 105.8, while Tirunelveli will air its programmes on 106.8. According to the release, the radio station promoted by Sun Network, will have a coverage exceeding a radius of 100 kms
The programming will be entertainment based and will be highly interactive and with a focus on localisation, the release says.
Suryan hopes to make an impression among local advertisers since it will provide high quality broadcast medium with competitive rates.
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.
