News Broadcasting
Star News forays into merchandising; launches books
MUMBAI: Star News is foraying into merchandising. As part of its merchandising and brand extension, Star News, in association with Star India Licensing and Merchandising division, has launched three books that predict the future of 2008.
This partnership between Star India Licensing and Merchandising and Star News will develop a line of publishing products based on the popular shows, under its Star Publishing initiative.
MCCS VP marketing Yogesh Manwani said, “This is our first venture in the merchandising business. We will be soon rolling out some more products to extend our brand.”
“This is yet another first-of-its-kind initiative in Hindi news television by MCCS along with the licensing and merchandising expertise of Star India. And there are more such initiatives in the pipeline,” he added.
The three books launched by Star News include Tarot 2008, Astrology 2008 and Numerology 2008. The books are based on the show Teen Deviyaan that forecasts fortunes using three different clairvoyant methods.
Tarot 2008 is written by Munisha Khatwani; Astrology 2008 by Meera Mahajan, and Numerology 2008 by Shelly Gupta. The books are being distributed by Prakash Books India Private Limited.
The book contains predictions for 2008 based on the individual predictive method. Viewers can refer to the book for queries or questions and get an opinion on their stars.
Star Licensing and Merchandising is the newly formed division of Star India Pvt. Ltd. and is involved in the business of development of Star intellectual property with partners across categories. Besides books on Star News shows, Star Publishing is also creating several titles on shows across the network including novels, comics, cookery, travel, style guides, children’s books and others. Yet another brand launched by the division is Star Parivaar, a brand that targets women offering a range of apparel, accessories, home and lifestyle products.
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.
