News Broadcasting
Marathi news vies for a larger share of the pie
MUMBAI: It’s a small rise, but a significant one for regional channels out to prove their mettle in an increasingly crowded market.
Despite the rise in the number of news channels in the last one year, Marathi channels have managed a slight growth in viewership shares during the time news bulletins were aired.
While the increase may be a negligible one per cent from a 77 per cent share in the last quarter of 2003 to 78 per cent in the first quarter of 2004, it has come at the cost of prominent players like Aaj Tak and Star News.
Alpha Marathi, which stepped up its news coverage from mid 2003 has gained the most – from a nine per cent share in late 2003, it has grown to 12 per cent, while ETV Marathi, the pioneer in the hourly news bulletins, has in fact, lost a tiny share by slipping to 28 per cent share from 29 per cent. DD Sahyadri, which continues to command the largest viewership for news bulletins in Maharashtra, too lost share – from its commanding position of 39 per cent share to 38 per cent.
Interestingly, although the state is yet to spawn regional news channels unlike in the south, regional news takes the largest chunk of viewership. The remaining 20 -22 per cent of news viewership is shared by Hindi news channels, among whom only NDTV India has picked up share in Maharashtra – from 3 to 4 per cent and Zee News that has picked up from 2 to 3 per cent.
Among overall channel shares, however, the Marathi channels have a long way to climb. In spite of slicked up programming, reigning entertainment channel Star Plus has held its own and increased its channel share from 44 to 46 per cent in Maharashtra, when compared with Marathi channels in Q1 2004 as against Q4 2003. The losers have been Sony Entertainment Television which fell from 18 to 16 per cent and Sahara Manoranjan that lost channel share from seven to four per cent. The Doordarshan run Sahyadri has not benefited from the general good fortune favouring Marathi channels however, and has stayed steady at a five per cent share in the two time periods compared.
Interestingly, even though viewership of Marathi channels did dip during the India Pakistan cricket series, the loss of viewership, even though it indicates a fondness for the sport among Maharashtrian viewers, was not very significant.
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.
