News Broadcasting
Star News expands morning band with ‘Pehli Khabar’
MUMBAI: Starting 9 January, Star News will overhaul its morning news band by launching Pehli Khabar from 5 am to 8 am. With the aim of building on Star Savera, the channel has expanded its morning band.
With this variation, the channel will telecast its branded show Star Savera from 8 am to 11 am, which initially aired at 6:30 am to 9 am. Good Morning India show, which aired on Star News (NDTV was then providing content to Star News) had paved the way for the launch of breakfast news.
Star News has designed the wake-up news keeping in mind that its audience will receive fresh slice of news. Pehli Khabar will provide news from across the world and also provide a first glimpse of all the events and happenings that unfolded the night before. The new arrangement has been designed, at least in part, to broaden the morning news band scope with general news stories that appeal the audience.
Star Savera will look forward at the day ahead and delve into the news focussing on people, sports, crime, politics, civic life and the general buzz.
Star News CEO Uday Shankar says “We felt that starting a fresh broadcast at 6.00am was too late since most alive & health conscious urban Indians are up and about much before. Pehli Khabar is an attempt to connect them with their world just as their day begins. The shift in programming scheduling is in line with the evolving news consumption habits of viewers”
He further added that there has been a ‘need gap that existed’, which prompted the network to initiate in filling the space.
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.
