News Broadcasting
Tara exits general entertainment; to launch news, music channels
MUMBAI: Rathikant Basu-promoted Broadcast Worldwide is set to launch news and music channels on 21 February as its general entertainment channel Tara Bangla has decided to call it quits.
Tara News will replace Tara Bangla on the distribution space and will be uplinked from its existing VSNL facility. Tara Muzik, on the other hand, will temporarily uplink from Bangkok till it obtains the uplinking permission from the information and broadcasting ministry.
“We were already airing eight hours of news and current affairs programming on Tara Bangla. The experience will help us to launch a 24-hour news channel. There is a wide interest in news and there is no specific channel to cater to this growing audience,” says Tara executive vice president and Tara News head Dr. Amit Chakraborty.
The exit of Broadcast Worldwide from the general entertainment space comes in the wake of stiff competition from rival channels like ETV Bangla, Alpha Bangla and Doordarshan’s regional channel. Sun Network is also planning to launch Surjo in this segment.
“Soaps have become a costly proposition in the Bangla market. One episode costs us Rs 50,000 on an average. With this money, we can easily produce about five to six episodes of non-fiction progamming,” says Chakraborty.
Broadcast Worldwide’s decision is also aided by the fact that it had more success with its non-fiction programming. “Our core strength has been non-fiction programming. During the last five years, the channel has got its highest TRPs from non-fiction programmes,” says Chakraborty.
Tara News will have hourly news bulletins throughout the day, punctuated by current affairs and other news-based programmes. Each news bulletin will be of thirty minutes duration. The focus will be on live programming with a daily dose of six to seven live current affairs shows. The channel will dish out live reports from the stock market.
The news channel segment in West Bengal is being eyed by major broadcasters. Star and Sahara are finalising their plans to enter the Bangla news market.
Tara Muzik will primarily be a music channel but will also air movies and telefilms. Broadcast Worldwide has acquired 50 movies and has a library of 100 telefilms. “We also have access to 350 movies and are producing eight telefilms a month,” says Chakraborty.
The music channel, to be headed by Dr. Chhanda Guha, will also air live music contests and concerts. But this can happen only after the channel obtains clearance to uplink from India.
Tara has three studios in Kolkata, two of which will be utilised for the news channel. Tara will also be formally launching Radio Tara and the Tara Music label on 21 February.
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.
