Hum News

About Hum News

Hum News is a 24-hour Urdu-language news and current affairs channel owned by Pakistan’s Hum Network, one of the country’s leading private broadcasters. Launched in Pakistan in May 2018, the channel delivers rolling news, political coverage and current affairs programming to Urdu-speaking audiences at home and abroad. In the United Kingdom, Hum News first appeared on Sky in July 2018, was withdrawn in March 2021, and returned to British screens on 7 January 2026, replacing the sister channel Hum Masala on Sky channel 732 and Sky Glass channel 720. Its official website is humnews.pk.

Launch in Pakistan

Hum News began test transmissions in 2016, with industry forums recording test signals on the AsiaSat 7 satellite, before its formal transmission started on 11 May 2018. The launch extended the Hum Network, until then known primarily for entertainment through its flagship Hum TV channel, into the competitive Pakistani news market, where established players including Geo News, Dunya News, Samaa TV and ARY News dominated the Urdu news landscape. The channel was founded by Sultana Siddiqui and Duraid Qureshi, the leadership team behind the Hum Network’s rise as a media group.

The new channel positioned itself as a full-service news operation, with a news department producing round-the-clock bulletins, talk shows and current affairs programming. Its launch reflected a wider trend in Pakistani media, as entertainment groups sought to capture a share of the news audience and the advertising revenue that came with it, and as the country’s politics generated an insatiable public appetite for televised news and debate.

Ownership and leadership

Hum News is owned by Hum Network Limited, the Karachi-based media company whose portfolio includes the entertainment channels Hum TV, Hum Sitaray and Hum Masala. The network’s president is Sultana Siddiqui, one of the most prominent figures in Pakistani television, who founded Hum TV in 2005 and built it into a household name through hit drama serials, while chief executive Duraid Qureshi oversees the group’s commercial operations. The news channel’s editorial leadership has included figures such as director of news Rehan Ahmad, head of programming Akhtar V. Azeem and senior producers Hammad Hassan and Danyal Sajid.

As part of the Hum Network, Hum News benefits from the group’s production infrastructure, talent relationships and brand recognition among Pakistani audiences worldwide. The network’s international operations, including its UK services, have historically been supported by specialist distributors and advertising agencies serving the South Asian media market in Britain.

Programming and editorial approach

Hum News broadcasts a 24-hour schedule of Urdu-language news and current affairs. Its output centres on rolling news bulletins covering Pakistani politics, the economy, security and social issues, supplemented by talk shows, panel discussions and current affairs programming in the evening prime time. Like its competitors, the channel’s schedule is driven by the rhythms of Pakistani political life: parliamentary developments, court proceedings, party press conferences and breaking stories from Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Peshawar.

The channel’s newsroom produces content for both linear television and digital platforms, with its YouTube channel carrying live streams and clips for Pakistani and international viewers. The network’s production standards reflect its entertainment heritage, with studio presentation and graphics designed to compete with the polished output of the longer-established news channels.

First UK launch

Hum News first launched in the United Kingdom in July 2018, expanding the Hum Network’s British footprint beyond its entertainment services. The UK launch was accompanied by ambitious plans: industry reports indicated that the newly launched channel was expected to sign up to BARB, the UK’s television audience measurement body, within weeks of its debut, a move that would have made its viewership officially measurable and more attractive to mainstream advertisers. The network planned a major marketing push to build awareness of the channel among British Pakistanis.

In the UK market, Hum News faced intense competition from established Urdu news services, with market leaders New Vision TV and Geo News joined by rivals including Samaa TV, Dunya News, UK 44 and 92 News, all chasing the same diaspora audience. Despite the BARB ambitions and marketing investment, the channel’s first British run proved short-lived: its linear service was discontinued in March 2021, less than three years after launch, as the network reassessed its UK strategy.

Return to Sky in 2026

Hum News returned to British television on Wednesday 7 January 2026, in a move that reshaped the Hum Network’s UK line-up. The network confirmed that Hum Masala, its hybrid channel offering a mix of cookery programming and repeats from Hum TV’s drama slate, would be removed from the Sky electronic programme guide to make way for the news channel’s comeback. Hum Masala had struggled to hold its audience against competing broadcasters despite repeated schedule overhauls and repositioning attempts, prompting the network to conclude that a news service offered a stronger proposition for the UK market.

The relaunched channel broadcasts on Sky channel 732 and on Sky Glass channel 720, restoring a dedicated Hum news voice to British screens after a five-year absence. The return reflects the enduring demand among British Pakistanis for Urdu-language news from home, and the Hum Network’s judgement that the competitive dynamics of the UK Asian television market had shifted in favour of a news offering over Hum Masala’s food-and-drama mix.

The UK Asian news market

Hum News operates in one of the most crowded sectors of British ethnic television. The UK’s Pakistani diaspora, numbering well over a million people, is served by a host of Urdu news channels competing for attention and advertising revenue. Geo News has long been among the most-watched, while New Vision TV established itself as a market leader in the UK, and services such as Samaa TV, Dunya News, UK 44 and 92 News offer further choice. Channels differentiate themselves through their political coverage, talk-show hosts, and the strength of their reporting from Pakistan.

For advertisers, BARB measurement has been a key battleground: channels that subscribe to the ratings body can demonstrate their audiences to media buyers, while those outside it must rely on other evidence of reach. Hum News’s original 2018 plan to join BARB signalled the network’s intent to compete as a mainstream proposition rather than a niche service, and its 2026 return places it back in contention for a share of the UK Asian news audience.

Digital and streaming presence

Beyond linear television, Hum News maintains a digital presence through its YouTube channel, which carries live streams of the channel’s output alongside news clips and programme highlights for viewers in Pakistan and the diaspora. The channel’s website, humnews.pk, publishes news stories and video content, extending the brand’s journalism to online and mobile audiences. Social media platforms carry the channel’s breaking news alerts and programme promotions, part of the wider Hum Network’s substantial digital footprint.

The digital operation allows Hum News to reach Urdu-speaking audiences beyond the footprint of its satellite and cable distribution, including younger viewers who consume news primarily on mobile devices. For the diaspora in particular, the combination of linear television on Sky and streaming online provides multiple routes to the channel’s coverage of Pakistani affairs.

Hum Network’s UK history

The Hum Network’s relationship with British television stretches back more than a decade. Hum TV’s European service, Hum Europe, launched in the UK as a free-to-air channel and became one of the first Pakistani entertainment channels to sign up to BARB measurement in July 2014, a milestone that demonstrated the commercial maturation of the UK’s South Asian television market. Hit Hum TV dramas such as Humsafar, Diyar-e-Dil and Meray Qatil Meray Dildar drew large British audiences, with some episodes reportedly averaging close to 1.5 million viewers at their peak.

Hum Masala, the channel that Hum News replaced in January 2026, had carried the network’s food and lifestyle output alongside drama repeats, but its persistent ratings challenges illustrated how competitive the UK Asian market had become. The decision to swap an entertainment hybrid for a news channel marks a strategic pivot, betting that news and current affairs will prove more resilient than cookery and repeats in the current market.

Official website

Hum News’s official website is humnews.pk, where viewers can read the channel’s news coverage, watch video reports and find live streaming of its Urdu-language output. The site serves as the digital home of the channel’s journalism for audiences in Pakistan and around the world.