News Broadcasting
Raj TV plans business news channels in southern languages
MUMBAI: The regional news channel space is set for segmentation. Hoping to enter a genre untapped by broadcasters in the southern region, Raj Television Network (RTN) is planning to launch business news channels in the four languages of Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam.
“The board has given a nod and we are in the process of applying for licenses. We want to launch business news channels in the southern languages,” says Raj Television Network director M Raveendran.
The first of the sibling channels to come out would be in the Tamil language. RTN, which raised Rs 917.4 million through an initial public offering (IPO) early this year, already operates Raj TV and Raj Digital Plus.
Kalanithi Maran’s Sun TV Ltd, which is the dominant player in the southern region, has a string of news channels but none in the pure business segment. The view taken so far by broadcasters is that the market has not matured for a niche segment news channel in the southern languages.
Raj TV is also planning to step outside the southern region. The company is evaluating the feasibility of youth and current affairs channels in Marathi and Gujarati languages.
Outside the news space, Raj TV plans to launch a kids channel in Tamil. “The board has approved the proposal for launching 12 channels. This includes a toons channel to cater to the kids,” says Raveendran.
Rival Sun TV is launching a kids channel with an investment outlay of Rs 400 million this year. Sports and documentary channels are also slated for launch this fiscal.
Raj TV is planning to launch a youth-centric multi-lingual channel aimed at the 14-40 age group, for which it has earmarked Rs 107 million from its IPO proceeds. “We are launching this channel in June,” says Raveendran.
Regional broadcasters are expanding their presence and making forays into new geographies. Such growth stories are pulling valuations up as private equity funds are sensing worth in regional media companies. The Blackstone group, a global private investment firm, has plunked down $275 million for a 26 per cent stake in Ushodaya Enterprises Ltd (UEL), which owns the Eenadu newspaper and ETV group of regional channels. Hyderabad-based TV9 is planning to launch news channels for Mumbai, Gujarat and National Capital Region (NCR) territories and is in talks with two funds to raise Rs 2.5 billion.
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.
