News Broadcasting
Focus Group changes channel packaging for more focus
MUMBAI: Gearing up for a full fledged launch very soon, upcoming Hindi news channel Focus News has undergone a makeover. Dropping its earlier logo and colour combination, the channel has revamped with fresh colours of red and white.
Ideated by JWT and executed by Clayground, the same logo format will be adopted for its other regional channels namely Focus Haryana, Focus Bangla, Focus Odisha, Focus NE and Focus Hi Fi, in the next two weeks. The on air look has also been changed, which has been done by an in house team.
The new logo has the map of the world fitted inside the ‘o’. Speaking on the change, Focus Group CEO Neeraj Sanan says, “Red and white are the colours of news channels. We wanted a unique dimension with an interesting shade.”
While the regional channels have been fully distributed, the national channel is currently available only on Videocon d2h, Tata Sky and from 1 November on DD Freedish. The group is awaiting its last leg of clearance from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for its satellite transfer request.
Focus News is currently situated on Measat which makes it cumbersome while dealing with cable operators as it has to give a dish and IRD box for every operator. It is looking at shifting to Intelsat.
Once the new satellite is confirmed, it will be available on cable platforms as well. Post getting its distribution fixed, the channel will embark on a marketing plan in the Hindi speaking markets. Sanan is aware that the channel so far has kept itself low on distribution with only a limited presence on the DTH platforms. Therefore the logo change will be noticed by most.
“We are creating a brand for the future,” he concludes.
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.
