News Broadcasting
Kolkata municipal elections boost Star Ananda ratings
MUMBAI: It is anand (happiness) for the fledgling news channel from the ABP-Star stable – Star Ananda – targeted at the 100 million strong Bengali populace. It is riding high on handsome ratings – an outcome of its focused coverage of the Kolkata Municipal elections last month, which saw the Left sweeping its way to victory.
TAM data for week 26 (19-25 June 2005) indicates that Star Ananda has managed to hook 49 of the Top 50 programme spots across all news channels in Kolkata and West Bengal. Its election special shows — Kolkata Sara Din chalked up 2.87 TVRs, Hello VIP garnered 2.49 TVRs and Bolun Councilor attains 2.43 TVRs, giving it a channel TVR of 3.54.
The only other show in the Top 50 pecking order was Tara Newz Tara Nazar which was ranked at No 43 with a TVR of 1.39. In fact, Star Ananda’s performance, according to sources, in the afternoon band between 1 and 4 pm was most impressive and most of the programmes in the Top 50 were aired during the noon.
Speaking on the impressive performance, MCCS CEO Uday Shankar goes on to add that at MCCS, tremendous efforts has been placed to cultivate the afternoon band and to break the myth that has been perpetuated amongst the news broadcasters that the noon band does not hold potential viewers.
The good showing has secured it a 52 per cent market share in Kolkata, with its piece of the action for West Bengal being a commanding 49 per cent (C&S, 15 plus). Tara Newz the No 2 had a 15 per cent market share both in Kolkata as well as in West Bengal with NDTV India snaring an 8 per cent share each in Kolkata and West Bengal.
According to Shankar, the highlight was polling day on 19 June, for the Kolkata Municipal elections, when it managed to carve out a 69 per cent market share in Kolkata. Tara News was a distant second, holding an 18 per cent share. Its market share on 21 June – counting day – was also an awesome 63 per cent.
Commenting on the completion of one month of Star Aanada, a jubilant Shankar says: “We are looking at expanding the universe of news viewership.”
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.
