News Broadcasting
Views-based journalism scores, Sun TV’s Udaya News to cease ops
MUMBAI: Every business and television channel faces competition sooner or later. Competing companies generally bring in better products. But, Udaya News, the first 24×7 Kannada channel that ruled the roost for over 15 years, saw a decline as rival channels presented stories with strong views — a la Arnab Goswami.
Placed at the sixth position among the Kannada-language news channels as per the latest BARC India data, it is on the verge of closure. However, other Sun channels such as Udaya Movies, Udaya TV and Udaya Comedy will continue operations.
Ratings of Udaya News had started declining after a series of news channels came in, in the past few years and the former failed to put up a fight.
Karnataka viewers in the 1990s relied entirely on Doordarshan till Udaya News lauched in 1998; it is now shutting down owing to huge losses. In a letter addressed to the Karnataka government secretary, owner of Udaya News, Sun Network stated that the channel would cease operations on 24 October, and 73 employees would lose their jobs.
Udaya News enjoyed a wonderful viewership till the rise of TV 9 Kannada — the leader today, followed by Public TV and Suvarna News.
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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.
