News Broadcasting
Pakistan’s first business news channel to launch in July
MUMBAI: Pakistan will soon see the launch of it’s first satellite based 24-hour business news channel – Business Plus. Local and international business news, with a special focus on South Asia and the Middle East regions, is the channel’s stated areas of coverage. Business Plus, which is scheduled to launch in the first week of July, will be headed by Fazeel Asif Jah.
Business Plus will operate under Total Media Limited, which is a venture promoted Pakistani telecom major WorldCall Telecommunications Group Ltd. WorldCall has only recently entered the media arena and has plans to launch two to three other channels besides Business Plus, Asif Jah told indiantelevision.com over the phone from Pakistan. $ 3 million is the initial investment being pumped into Business Plus, Asif Jah said.
The company’s BoD comprises WorldCall, Pakistan Kuwait Investment Company Pvt. Ltd, DDP Gulf Promo Action chairman and CEO Najam Mahmood Khawaja and Lahore Stock Exchange chairman Syed Asim Zaffar.
The channel will be uplinked from Pak Sat 1 and will offer a comprehensive coverage of Pakistan’s financial markets, corporations, small and medium enterprises, investment opportunities and will also focus on the professionals who are taking Pakistani businesses to new heights, says Asif Jah. Other Pakistani channels that are also uplinked from Pak Sat 1 are VU1, VU2 and Mashraq TV.
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.
