News Broadcasting
Sun Direct Introduces Cinema + Sports Pack at an Unbelievable Price
Bringing more joy to the festival of Onam, Sun Direct, gifts Kerala viewers utmost entertainment with its exciting Onam offers. Sun Direct has over 12 lakh subscribers in Kerala and is the single largest DTH player in Kerala. This Onam Season, Sun Direct targets to add 1, 00,000 new subscribers with their special offers.
New customers can avail an extra month’s free viewing on select packs:
*Malayalam Cinema plus for 1 + 1 month at Rs. 1890, 4 +1 month at 2290, 8 +1 months at 2890.
*Malayalam Super value for 1 +1 month at Rs.1990, 6 +1 months at 2890.
This Onam, with a new 24 hour Malayalam music channel – Surya Music, non-stop Malayalam comedy with Chirithira, exclusive Malayalam cinema club along with 4 popular Sports channels, ESPN, Star Sports, Star Cricket, Star Sports 2, and Sun Direct gives its customers a great value proposition. All this is available on the Cinema + Sports pack at a monthly renewal subscription of just Rs. 185. What’s more, customers can now record their favorite channels with video recording on SD+ and HD+ boxes at no additional cost.
Commenting on this festive offer, Mr. Mahesh Kumar, MD, Sun Direct, said “Sun Direct aims to add spirit and joy to the festival of Onam by providing optimum entertainment at a very affordable price point. This Onam, we intend to value every need of our customer and offer maximum entertainment packages. We expect our customized offers for the festival to add more joy to our customers bringing them the best packages to choose from. “
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.
