News Broadcasting
Bloomberg UTV targets the growth aspirants with bluntness
MUMBAI: Bloomberg UTV, the English business news channel, is eyeing a wider set of audiences with its new makeover.
The channel, which has changed its tagline to ‘Blunt and Sharp’, claims that going forward, its focus will be on a larger audience who are growth aspirants, and not just on the stock markets.
Talking to Indiantelevision.com, UTV Global Broadcasting (UGBL) CEO MK Anand affirmed that he is looking at an overhaul by practically measuring the way business news is being presented in India. “After a detailed eight-week survey of our SEC AB 25+ male audiences, we have come to know that only nine per cent viewers invest actively in the stock market. The business news should be much more than that and thus, we believe our focus should be on catering to the needs of the remaining 91 per cent audience.”
The channel has been correcting its distribution post IPL, and changed its look and feel during May-end. Recently, it had also launched a new advertising campaign to promote its new programming strategy.
Via the new ‘blunt and sharp’ campaign, the channel is addressing its various stakeholders, including viewers, traders and advertisers. The campaign is done by TapRoot India, the channel’s creative agency.
Talking about content, Bloomberg UTV business head Deepak Lamba said that within the next three months, the channel will launch new shows with a complete refreshed perspective.
“We will be using simpler terms, and launching new shows on smart money, real estate etc. Our aim is to simplify the things for our viewers,” Lamba said.
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.
