Category: Viewership

Republic TV complains to TRAI, BARC on Times Now’s genre slotting

MUMBAI: The ever-competitive business of TV news is set to witness another round of slugfest. Republic TV has complained to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) of India about English news channel Times Now getting the channel re-slotted under Hindi news genre on distribution platforms, which may impact viewership data.

A letter written by Republic TV earlier this month, reviewed by Indiantelevision.com, accused Times Now of getting some of the distribution platforms to place the channel “among the Hindi news sub-genre” as some of the programmes broadcast had “substantial Hindi content” as claimed by Times.

“This is a confusing development as BARC will report Times Now [viewership data] as part of the English news channel list,” the Republic complaint highlighted, adding, “if its proximity/neighbourhood is significantly among the Hindi news channels, it stands to distort viewership data.”

Republic has also exhorted BARC India, which is set to release soon its fresh and updated television-related annual data, to take note of distribution changes relating to Times Now as not an English-language news channel but “preferably” a Hindi channel.

However, changing of genres to boost sampling among viewers or resorting to dual or multiple LCNs are some issues not new to the Indian broadcast business. Nor is the animosity. that has prevailed between Times Now, former employer of Republic TV’s chief editor Arnab Goswami.

When Republic TV debuted last year, a clutch of news channels, later backed by News Broadcasters Association (NBA), had alleged the new entrant was resorting to dual LCN or multiple feed tactic to boost viewership. BARC had also been petitioned to suspend publishing of Republic TV’s data.

Times Now had also taken Goswami, promoter of Republic TV’s parent company, to the courts to desist him from using the phrase `nation wants to know’ claiming IPR over it as it was started when the flamboyant news anchor was with the Times group. Though Republic TV later became a member of NBA, Goswami had taken a swipe at Times Now calling it a cry baby.

Since then both the TV news channels had been making news off-air, while slugging it out to corner viewers’ attention in a continuing see-saw battle.

Asked about the issue of multiple feeds-strategy used by TV channels, TV market research company Chrome Data Analytics and Media CEO Pankaj Krishna told Indiantelevision.com that the unethical tactic was “still very much prevalent” despite a directive against it by regulator TRAI.

“According to Chrome, there were some 1,433 instances of dual LCN across all genres across the country as of last week, Krishna explained, adding, “The practice is mostly seen during blockbuster events like presentation of Union Budget (for business news genre) and during new launches as part of a channel’s marketing exercise. But such tactics have limited time impact.”

TV Today Network managing editor Supriya Prasad was of the opinion if a TV channel was resorting to “unethical practices” to boost viewership, then it meant it didn’t have full faith in its own content. Aaj Tak is the leader of Hindi news genre as per BARC India Week 27 data.

Another industry observer felt as HSM or Hindi-speaking market is a big one, getting slotted in that category in the EPG “opens up reach of a channel”. However, the observer was critical of such attempts to boost reach and viewership: “If an English TV channel is present in the Hindi news genre, simply informing TRAI and the operator to keep within the right side of the law as it was doing small amount of Hindi content is cheating the system. It gains importance if BARC too is not made aware of such a development.”

It now remains to be seen how the regulator and BARC India will respond to the Republic TV complaint.

July 18, 2018
BARC India plans expansion of metre homes to 44,000 by this FY

MUMBAI: Rural India is getting in the limelight. TV ratings body BroadcastAuidence Research Council (BARC) is expanding metre homes to 44,000 by this financial year.

BARC India CEO Partho Dasgupta told to the Press Trust of India, ” When we first started measuring TV viewership habits, 30 per cent of our sample TV homes were in rural India. This went up to 33 per cent when we expanded our metres to 33,000. This will further go up to 38 per cent, when we expand the metre homes to 44,000 by end of this financial year. This is a 153 per cent growth in the rural sample.”

In coming years it will have 55,000 TV homes. “With return path data (RPD), we plan to scale up this number to over 200,000,” he said adding that RPD will also help to curb panel home tampering.

In 2015 BARC started to roll out the data, where it has seen that the TV viewership is highest among the youth (15-30 year) even in the digital age. It even tied up with Den Network and Airtel Digital TV for RPD and Dasgupta said it is in talks with all the other players.

The daily tune-ins on TV currently stands at 557 million and the daily average time spent per viewer watching TV is 3 hour 44 minutes.

The total TV viewership has gone up from 20.4 billion impressions to 28.3 billion impressions, up by 39 per cent.

Key Hindi genres like Hindi GEC, Hindi movies and Hindi news have gone up by six per cent, 87 per cent and 13 per cent respectively since 2015.

Viewership for English channels has also gone up from 115 million impressions to 122 million impressions, a growth of six per cent.

HD viewership has seen a 5.5 times growth in the last three years. Sports, that in 2015 contributed to 1.8 per cent to total TV viewership, has grown to three per cent in 2018.

In the sports genre, while cricket still remains the most popular on TV, viewership of local sport kabaddi has grown by 83 per cent.

“Also, trends like increase in temperature leads to drop in primetime viewership and total TV viewership in South spikes during festival holidays have come up,” Dasgupta said.

Meanwhile BARC has also started measuring out of the home television which aims is to measure all the screens being used to consume content says Dasgupta.

It has recently started measuring OOH TV consumptions in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru for restaurants, pubs and lounges.

This year BARC India is mainly focused on moving from being a mere data company to an insights company.

It is also preparing for its digital measurement service Ekam. “One reason it is taking longer than estimated to launch Ekam is that we are working to build that consensus to get all key stakeholders onboard and aligned to the building blocks of Ekam. This will ensure all-round acceptance of the data. We also underwent a similar journey before launching TV viewership measurement,” added Dasgupta.

July 17, 2018
BARC India plans expansion of metre homes to 44,000 by this FY

MUMBAI: Rural India is getting in the limelight. TV ratings body BroadcastAuidence Research Council (BARC) is expanding metre homes to 44,000 by this financial year.

BARC India CEO Partho Dasgupta told to the Press Trust of India, ” When we first started measuring TV viewership habits, 30 per cent of our sample TV homes were in rural India. This went up to 33 per cent when we expanded our metres to 33,000. This will further go up to 38 per cent, when we expand the metre homes to 44,000 by end of this financial year. This is a 153 per cent growth in the rural sample.”

In coming years it will have 55,000 TV homes. “With return path data (RPD), we plan to scale up this number to over 200,000,” he said adding that RPD will also help to curb panel home tampering.

In 2015 BARC started to roll out the data, where it has seen that the TV viewership is highest among the youth (15-30 year) even in the digital age. It even tied up with Den Network and Airtel Digital TV for RPD and Dasgupta said it is in talks with all the other players.

The daily tune-ins on TV currently stands at 557 million and the daily average time spent per viewer watching TV is 3 hour 44 minutes.

The total TV viewership has gone up from 20.4 billion impressions to 28.3 billion impressions, up by 39 per cent.

Key Hindi genres like Hindi GEC, Hindi movies and Hindi news have gone up by six per cent, 87 per cent and 13 per cent respectively since 2015.

Viewership for English channels has also gone up from 115 million impressions to 122 million impressions, a growth of six per cent.

HD viewership has seen a 5.5 times growth in the last three years. Sports, that in 2015 contributed to 1.8 per cent to total TV viewership, has grown to three per cent in 2018.

In the sports genre, while cricket still remains the most popular on TV, viewership of local sport kabaddi has grown by 83 per cent.

“Also, trends like increase in temperature leads to drop in primetime viewership and total TV viewership in South spikes during festival holidays have come up,” Dasgupta said.

Meanwhile BARC has also started measuring out of the home television which aims is to measure all the screens being used to consume content says Dasgupta.

It has recently started measuring OOH TV consumptions in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru for restaurants, pubs and lounges.

This year BARC India is mainly focused on moving from being a mere data company to an insights company.

It is also preparing for its digital measurement service Ekam. “One reason it is taking longer than estimated to launch Ekam is that we are working to build that consensus to get all key stakeholders onboard and aligned to the building blocks of Ekam. This will ensure all-round acceptance of the data. We also underwent a similar journey before launching TV viewership measurement,” added Dasgupta.

July 17, 2018
Three channels each from SPN, Star India among top 10 in across genres

BENGALURU: There were three channels each from Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and Star India in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) list of top 10 channels across list for week 27 of 2018 (Saturday, 30 June 2018 to Friday, 6 July 2018, week under review or consideration). Besides channels from these two networks, there were two channels from Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) and one channel each from the Sun TV Network Ltd and Viacom18.

From the genres perspective, six channels from the Hindi GEC genre, two channels from the Hindi movies genre and one channel each from the Tamil and Telugu genres made up BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genres (across genres list) in week 27 of 2018.

Following almost a set norm, (except during IPL weeks), the Sun Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV led the across the genres list in week 27 with 947.652 million weekly impressions as compared to 975.210 million weekly impressions. Sun TV also led BARC’s weekly list of top five Tamil channels in the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry market and all the five programmes in BARC’s list of top five Tamil programmes during primetime in these markets based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week were aired on Sun TV.

As has been the case over the past few weeks, at second place was Zeel’s free to air (FTA) Hindi GEC Zee Anmol with 700.502 million impressions in week 27 as compared to 722.587 million weekly impressions in week 26 of 2018. Zee Anmol was also ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in the combined urban and rural Hindi speaking markets or HSM (U+R) as also in HSM (R). The Balaji Telefilms-produced soap Kumkum Bhagya aired on Zee Anmol was ranked second in BARC’s list of top five Hindi GEC programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U+R) and was ranked first in HSM (R). Another soap from the channel, Mahek, was ranked second in HSM (R) like last week.

Continuing to retain its third rank was Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV with 652.386 million weekly impressions in week 27 as compared to 620.339 million weekly impressions in week 26 of 2018. As in the previous week Zee TV was ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs’ in HSM (U+R), second in HSM (U) and sixth in HSM (R) during the week under review .Two programmes that were aired on Zee TV- Kundali Bhagya, a spinoff of Kumkum Bhagya, was ranked third and Kumkum Bhagya was ranked fourth in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U). Kundali Bhagya was also ranked fifth in HSM (R) in BARC’s lists of top five Hindi GEC programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week. In the HSM (U) market, Kumkum Bhagya and another soap Ishq Subhan Allah on Zee TV were ranked third and fifth respectively during the week under consideration.

Also retaining its fourth rank was SPN’s Hindi movies channel Sony Max with 626.781 million weekly impressions in week 27 of 2018 as compared to 608.165 million weekly impressions in week 26. Sony Max was also ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top five Hindi novies channels in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) and was ranked fifth in HSM (R). The Hindi feature films (HFF) Bahubali the Beginning and Kanchana that were aired on the channel were ranked second and third respectively in BARC’s list of top five Hindi movies programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U). Another film, Sooryavansham was ranked fourth in HSM (U) in the same top programmes list.

The viewership of the third season of the Balaji Telefilms produced Naagin and the dance show Dance Deewane continued to help Viacom18’s flagship Hindi GEC Colors retain fifth place with 576.642 million weekly impressions in week 27 as compared to 589.944 million weekly impressions in week 26 of 2018. Colors was ranked fourth in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) and was ranked first in HSM (U). Naagin 3 and Dance Deewane found places in BARC’s weekly list of top five Hindi GECs during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U), while Naagin 3 was ranked fourth in HSM (R).

Star India’s flagship Telugu GEC Star Maa climbed up three ranks to sixth place in week 27 with 565.462 million weekly impressions as compared to ninth rank and 528.706 million weekly impressions in week 26 of 2018. Star Maa was ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top five Telugu channels in the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana market. Three programmes that were aired on Star Maa were present in BARC’s weekly list of top five Telugu programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week.

SPN’s women focused FTA Hindi GEC also retained its seventh rank in week 27 of 2018 with 555.128 million weekly impressions as compared to 542.828 million weekly impressions in week 26 of 2018. Sony Pal was ranked third and was ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi channels in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R) respectively and was ranked seventh in HSM (U). The sitcom Tarak Mehta ka Ooltah Chashmah aired on Sony Pal was ranked third in BARC’s list of top fiv Hindi GEC programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (R).

Dropping down two ranks to eighth place was Star India’s FTA Hindi GEC Star Bharat with 551.302 million weekly impressions in week 27 of 2018 as compared to sixth rank with 571.450 million weekly impressions in week 26. Star Bharat was ranked fifth in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi channels in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R) and was ranked sixth in HSM (U).

Another SPN Hindi movies channel Sony Wah re-entered BARC’s across genres list at ninth rank in week 27 of 2018 with 526.551 million weekly impressions. Sony Wah was ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of top five Hindi movies channels in HSM (U+R), first in HSM (U) and was ranked fifth in HSM (U). HFFs’ Rowdy Rathore and Yevadu from the channel were ranked second and fifth most watched Hindi movies programmes based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in the HSM (R) market.

Another Star India FTA Hindi GEC Star Utsav also re-entered BARC’s across genres list in week 27 of 2018 at tenth place with 520.306 million weekly impressions. Star Utsav was ranked sixth in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi channels in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) and was ranked third in HSM (R).

July 13, 2018
Sun TV notices downfall in gross viewership in BARC week 27

MUMBAI: Star continues to rule the south regions – Malayalam and Telugu channels Asianet and Star Maa and has also gained second position in the Tamil region pushing behind Zee to the third position in Broadcast Audience Research Council ratings for week 27, while ZEEL’s regional channels Zee Bangla and Zee Marathi continue to rule their respective languages of Bengali and Marathi. Big Ganga has been able to gain the top position in the Bhojpuri market. There wasn’t much change in the hierarchy for Kannada and Tamil with Colors Kannada and Sun TV retaining their top slots but Sun TV noticing a decrease in its gross viewership.

Bangla

Zee Bangla continued to be placed in the numero uno spot in week 27 but saw a decrease in viewership from 276815 impressions (000s) as recorded last week to 291010 impressions (000s) this week. Star Jalsha too remained in the second slot with 271440 impressions (000s) followed by Jalsha Movies, Colors Bangla and Aakash Aath, who retained their third, fourth and fifth positions this week with 63231 impressions (000s), 53206 impressions (000s) and 44098 impressions (000s) respectively. This week most of the channels in this market saw a decrease in the viewership as compared to last week.

Bhojpuri

This week Big Ganga managed to gain the highest number of viewership with 43719 impressions (000s), while Bhojpuri Cinema came second with 41771 impressions (000s). Bhojpuri Dhamaka Dishum and Oscar Movies Bhojpuri retained their third and fourth slots with 5647 impressions (000s) and 2027 impressions (000s) respectively. Mahuaa Plus came back in the fifth position with 1724 impressions (000s) dethroning News 18 Bihar Jharkhand, which was in the fifth position last week with 1442 impressions (000s).

Marathi

This week the Marathi market didn’t notice any change. Zee Marathi remained steadfast in the number one position with 282012 impressions (000s). Zee Talkies gained second position with 160343 impressions (000s) followed by Colors Marathi, Star Pravah and Zee Yuva in third, fourth and fifth positions with 123112 impressions (000s), 102911 impressions (000s) and 52237 impressions (000s) respectively.

Kannada

Kannada region remained unchanged this week as well. Colors Kannada retained its number one slot but underwent an increase in viewership from 389352 as recorded last week to 406405 impressions (000s) impressions (000s) of this week. Following Colors Kannada are Zee Kannada – 312339 impressions (000s), Udaya TV – 218228 impressions (000s), Udaya Movies – 201408 impressions (000s) and Star Suvarna – 125699 impressions (000s). Except Colors Kannada and Udaya Movies, all other channels in this region saw a decrease in viewership as compared to last week.

Malayalam

Asianet, the Malayalam general entertainment channel of Star TV retained its first position this week as well with 299372 impressions (000s). Surya TV moved to the second position with 93006 impressions (000s) pusing back Flowers TV to third position with 86835 impressions (000s). Mazhavil Manorama and Asianet Movies remained in fourth and fifth positions with 73449 impressions (000s) and 71592 impressions (000s) respectively.

Tamil

Zee Tamil was dragged down to third position from second climbed up to second position with 419669 impressions (000s), while Star Vijay gained second position this week with 429225 impressions (000s). Sun TV who retained its top position saw a decrease in viewership from 916957 impressions (000s) as recorded last week to 890935 impressions (000s) as of this week. KTV held its fourth position with 297775 impressions (000s). This week Colors Tamil was dethroned from the fifth position by Adityha TV, that came fifth with 67917 impressions (000s).

Telugu

Telugu region didn’t notice any change this week. Star Maa and Zee Telugu retained their first and second positions with total viewership of 526572 impressions (000s) and 465243 impressions (000s). Gemini TV and ETV Telugu swapped their third and fourth positions with 358711 impressions (000s) 396150 impressions (000s) respectively. Gemini Movies retained its fifth position with 176582 impressions (000s).

July 13, 2018
BARC week 27: Aaj Tak continues to dominate Hindi news genre

MUMBAI: The Broadcast Audience Research Council data for week 27 shows Aaj Tak dominating in Hindi news genre whereas ABP News found itself at second position in Hindi news (R). Republic TV continued to dominate the English news market.

English news

Arnab Goswami’s Republic TV continued to lead the English news genre with 970 impressions (000s) sum compared to 836 impressions (000s) sum last week. Times Now found itself at the second spot with 799 impressions (000s) sum followed by India Today Television at the third position with 258 impressions (000s) sum compared to 262 impressions (000s) sum last week. Mirror Now and CNN News18 maintained its fourth and fifth position with 215 impressions (000s) sum and 193 impressions (000s) sum.

English business news

CNBC TV18 is at top spot with 563 impressions (000s) sum compared to 527 impressions (000s) sum last week, followed by ET Now with 181 impressions (000s) sum. BTVI and CNBC TV18 Prime HD were at third and fourth positions with 69 impressions (000s) sum and 34 impressions (000s) sum respectively.

Hindi news (U+R)

Aaj Tak continued to lead in Hindi news genre (U+R) with 114295 impressions (000s) as compared to 102385 impressions (000s) sum. India TV is at second position with 84229 impressiosn (000s) sum, where as Zee News steps down to third position with 83543 impressions (000s) sum as compared to 83627 impressions (000s) last week.

News18 India and ABP News maintained their fourth position and fifth positions with 82151 impressions (000s) sum and 81810 impressions (000s) sum respectively.

Hindi news rural

Aaj Tak retained its top position in Hindi news (R) market with 48676 impressions (000s) sum. ABP News is at second position with 36014 impressions (000s) sum. News Nation stepped down to third position with 33965 impressions (000s) sum as compared to 33054 impressions (000s) sum last week, followed by India TV and News18 India at fourth and fifth positions with 32644 impressions (000s) and 31568 (000s) impressions sum.

Hindi news urban

Aaj Tak maintained its top position in Hindi news genre (U) with 65619 impressions (000s) sum compared to 61497 impressions (000s) sum last week. Zee News was at second position with 54456 impressions (000s) sums compared to 55524 impressions (000s) sum. India TV and News 18 India maintained third and fourth positions with 51585 impressions (000s) sum and 50582 impressions (000s) sum. ABP News found itself at fifth position with 45976 impressions (000s) sum.

July 12, 2018
Colors retains leadership in GEC urban in BARC week 27 data

MUMBAI: Zee Anmol retained its leadership position in Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) data for week 27 of 2018 in the Hindi GEC (U+R) market. While no changes were observed in the rural market, all the top 10 channels retained their positions as compared to the previous week in the urban segment.

Hindi GEC (U+R)

Zee Anmol and Zee TV retained their first and second positions with 719829 impressions (000s) sum and 614367 impressions (000s) sum respectively. Zee TV, Star Bharat, Colors and Sony Pal stood at second, third, fourth and fifth positions with 582960 impressions (000s) sum, 565587 impressions (000s) sum, 564746 impressions (000s) sum and 540331 impressions (000s) sum respectively.

Sony Pal, Colors, Star Bharat, Star Utsav and Star Plus stood at 552330 impressions (000s) sum, 552010 impressions (000s) sum, 545871 impressions (000s) sum, 508738 impressions (000s) sum and 487574 impressions (000s) sum respectively.

Rishtey, Sony Sab and Sony Entertainment Television retained their eighth, ninth and tenth positions with 445400 impressions (000s) sum, 401353 impressions (000s) sum and 362280 impressions (000s) sum respectively.

Hindi Rural GEC

No changes were observed. Zee Anmol, Sony Pal, Star Utsav, Rishtey, Star Bharat, Zee TV, Dangal Tv, Big Magic, Colors and Star Plus retained their respective first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth positions with 543886 impressions (000s) sum, 383445 impressions (000s) sum, 352093 impressions (000s) sum, 316799 impressions (000s) sum, 281329 impressions (000s) sum, 237395 impressions (000s) sum, 232047 impressions (000s) sum, 166127 impressions (000s) sum, 164101 impressions (000s) sum and 143936 impressions (000s) sum.

Hindi Urban GEC

In urban GEC, Colors, Zee TV and Star Plus retained their first, second and third positions with 387909 impressions (000s) sum, 376973 impressions (000s) sum and 343638 impressions (000s) sum respectively.

Sony Sab, Sony Entertainment Television, Star Bharat, Sony Pal, Star Utsav, Zee Anmol and Rishtey stood at fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth positions with 307607 impressions (000s) sum, 267800 impressions (000s) sum, 264543 impressions (000s) sum, 168886 impressions (000s) sum, 156645 impressions (000s) sum, 154937 impressions (000s) sum and 128602 impressions (000s) sum respectively.

July 12, 2018
Hindi TV news consumption higher in urban markets than in rural

BANGALURU: Television has become an integral part of Indian life, be it urban or rural India. Hindi news is one of the largest news genres in the country according to Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) weekly data. In the public domain, BARC provides data of the top five news channels – the combined urban and rural viewership (U+R), the urban viewership (U) and the rural viewership (R). The demographics used are NCCS: All 15+ individuals. According to BARC sources, the Hindi speaking market (HSM) comprises the All India market minus the markets of the four Southern languages – Telugu from the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana market; Tamil from the Tamil Nadu and the Pondicherry market, Kannada from the Karnataka market and Malayalam from the Kerala market.

The latest BARC universe data- Households and Individuals Universe Estimate – 2017, was announced sometime after January 2017. Using this data to determine Hindi news consumption in (U+R), the author has determined a limited overview of the Hindi news consumption trends as below:

Note: The author has extrapolated the number of 15+ HSM households (HH) assuming that there is a direct proportion between the total number of households with the total 15+ HSM and total HSM populations. This may not be the actual status. Also the numbers mentioned are not accurate because there are more than five Hindi news channels and their numbers are not available with the author. Hence actual Hindi news consumption in all the three BARC classifications will actually be higher.

As is obvious from the above figure, though the HSM (U) 15+ Individuals universe is smaller in terms of number of individuals as well as number of households, its Hindi news consumption based on the average weekly impressions and impressions per individual are higher than HSM (R).

Which were the most watched Hindi news channels in 2018 until BARC week 26?

One channel – Aaj Tak – led the Hindi news genre during the first 26 weeks of 2018 in HSM (U+R); HSM (U) and HSM (R) and was present in all the three top five Hindi news channels lists – HSM (R), HSM (U) and combined HSM (U+R). Besides Aaj Tak, rural HSM markets showed a partial preference for one channel – News Nation – the channel was present in BARC’s weekly HSM (R) lists for 25 of the first 26 weeks of 2018 as compared to its presence at rank five just once in HSM (U).

HSM (R)

Seven Hindi news channels were present in BARC’s lists of top five Hindi news channels in HSM (R), of which only one channel was present in all the first 26 weeks of – Aaj Tak. During 25 of the 26 weeks, Aaj Tak was ranked first as the most watched Hindi news channel in HSM (R). The only exception was week 18 of 2018 when India TV was ranked no 1 in HSM (R). Aaj Tak’s 26 weeks average ratings for HSM (R) was 46.959 million weekly impressions.

As mentioned above, News Nation was present for 25 weeks, while Zee News was present for 22 weeks in BARC’s weekly lists for the first 26 weeks. India TV was present in the HSM (R) list for 19 of the first 26 weeks of 2018. News Nations average viewership when it was present in the top five news channels list during the 25 of the 26 weeks of 2018 was 34 million, while Zee News had average weekly ratings of 36.662 million weekly impressions during the 22 of the 26 weeks of 2018 that it was present in the HSM (R) weekly lists. India TV had average weekly impressions of 33.889 million during the 19 of the 26 weeks of 2018 that it was present in BARC’s HSM (R) lists.

The other channels that were present in BARC’s HSM (R) lists were ABP News (16 weeks), News 18 India (15 weeks) and India News (seven weeks).

HSM (U)

Six channels were present in BARC’s weekly lists of top five Hindi news channels in HSM (U) during the first 26 weeks of 2018. Four channels – Aaj Tak (26 week average ratings 62.703 million weekly impressions); Zee News (26 week average ratings 53.229 million weekly impressions); India TV (26 week average ratings 52.834 million weekly impressions) and ABP News (26 week average ratings 44.142 million weekly impressions) were present during all the first 26 weeks in BARC’s list of top five Hindi news channels HSM (U). One channel – News 18 India was present in the HSM (U) lists for 25 of the first 26 weeks of 2018 with an average rating of 45.408 million weekly impressions.

News Nation was present during one only week (week 9 of 2018) in BARC’s HSM (U) list with 61.979 million weekly impressions.

HSM (U+R)

Six channels were present in BARC’s weekly lists of top five Hindi news channels in HSM (U+R). Three channels were present in the HSM (U+R) lists during all the first 26 weeks of 2018. They were: Aaj Tak with a 26 week average of 109.663 million weekly impressions; Zee News with 88.904 million weekly impressions and India TV with 86.601 million weekly impressions.

Aaj Tak was ranked first in BARC’s HSM (U+R) lists for 24 of the first 26 weeks of 2018, while India TV was ranked first once (week 18 of 2018) and Zee News was ranked first once during the period in week 25 of 2018. Zee News was ranked second in the HSM (U+R) lists for 12 of the 26 weeks of 2018, India TV was ranked second for 11 of the 26 weeks and Aaj Tak for two of the 26 weeks of 2018 and ABP News was ranked second for one of the first 26 weeks of 2018. India TV was ranked third for 10 of the first 26 weeks, News18 India was ranked third for seven of the first 26 weeks, Zee News was ranked third for eight of the first 26 weeks of 2018 while ABP News was ranked third for one week during the same period.

The other three channels that were present in BARC’s weekly list during the first 26 weeks of 2018 were News 18 India with an average of 77.724 million weekly impressions during the 25 of the 26 weeks that it was present in the lists followed by ABP News with an average of 82.491 million weekly impressions over 21 of the first 26 weeks of 2018 during which it was present in the HSM (U+R) lists. News Nation was present for six weeks during the first 26 weeks of 2018 with a six week average of 73.346 million weekly impressions.

How do the Hindi news channels compare with the Southern language news channels?

Here below is a table that shows viewership of the four markets:

It is quite obvious that south Indians consume more news in their respective local languages than the HSM does Hindi news. As in the case of Hindi news, the numbers mentioned for the four south Indian markets are limited. Data for the top five channels in each language has been used, when in actual fact, there are more than five news channels in each language.

The author would like to point out that in a previous paper that was recently published, the census of India 2011 numbers for the populations of the four south Indian markets were used and hence the numbers in that report will differ from those mentioned above. However the limited conclusions drawn in the previous (report except for the numbers) remain the same.

July 11, 2018
Two Zeel channels continue to rule Hindi GECs across genres

BENGALURU: Once again two Hindi GECs from the Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) channels were ranked second and third in Broadcast Audience Research Council’s (BARC) weekly list of top 10 channels across genres in week 26 of 2018 (Saturday, 23 June 2018 to Friday, 29 June 2018). Zeel’s free to air (FTA) Hindi GEC Zee Anmol was ranked second and the network’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV was ranked second in across genres list for week 25 of 2018. Like in the previous week, the first rank in the list was held by the regular occupier of the slot – the Sun TV Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV.

Behind Sun TV, Zee Anmol and Zee TV topped six Hindi GECs, two channels from the Telugu genre and one channel each from the Hindi movies and the Tamil genre in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genres during the week under review. From the networks’ perspective, there were three channels each from Star India and Zeel stables, two channels from the Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and one channel each from the Sun TV Network and Viacom18 in BARC’s across genres weekly list.

Sun TV held onto its last week’s rank of number one with 975.210 million weekly impressions in week 26 of 2018 as compared to 946.455 million weekly impressions in week 25. Further, Sun TV also was ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top five Tamil channels in the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry markets and all the programmes in BARC’s weekly list of top five Tamil programmes in these markets during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week were aired on Sun TV.

At second place was Zee Anmol with 722.587 million weekly impressions in week 26 of 2018 as compared to 747.590 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Zee Anmol was also ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in the combined urban and rural Hindi speaking markets or HSM (U+R) as also in HSM (R). The Balaji Telefilms-produced soap Kumkum Bhagya aired on Zee Anmol was ranked third in BARC’s list of top five Hindi GEC programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U+R) and was ranked first in HSM (R). Another soap from the channel, Mahek, was ranked second in HSM (R) like last week.

Retaining its previous week’s third rank was Zee TV with 620.339 million weekly impressions in week 26 of 2018 as compared to 606.439 million weekly impressions in week 25. Zee TV was ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R), second in HSM (U) and sixth in HSM (R). Two programmes that were aired on Zee TV- Kundali Bhagya, a spinoff of Kumkum Bhagya was ranked second and Kumkum Bhagya was ranked fourth in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U). Kundali Bhagya was also ranked fifth in HSM (R) in BARC’s lists of top five Hindi GEC programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week.

Climbing up one place to fourth rank was SPN’s Hindi movies channel Sony Max with 608.165 million weekly impressions in week 26 as compared to third rank and 597.083 million weekly impressions in week 25 of 2018. Sony Max was also ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top five Hindi movies channels in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) and was ranked fifth in HSM (R). The Hindi feature film (HFF) Tiger Zinda Hai that was aired on the channel was ranked first in BARC’s list of top five Hindi movies programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U). Furthermore, The Return of the Rebel and Sultan were ranked second and fourth most watched Hindi movies programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U).

The viewership of the third season of the Balaji Telefilms-produced Naagin and the dance show Dance Deewane was helped Viacom18’s flagship Hindi GEC Colors climb up one rank to fifth place with 589.944 million weekly impressions in week 26 as compared to 580.417 million weekly impressions in week 25 of 2018. Colors was ranked fourth in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) and was ranked first in HSM (U). Naagin 3 and Dance Deewane found places in BARC’s weekly list of top five Hindi GECs during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U), while Naagin 3 was ranked fourth in HSM (R).

At sixth place was Star India’s FTA Hindi GEC Star Bharat with 571.450 million weekly impressions in week 26 as compared to seventh rank and 574.692 million weekly impressions in week 25 of 2018. Star Bharat was ranked third in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi channels in HSM (U+R); ranked third in HSM (U) and was ranked fifth in HSM (R).

At seventh rank was SPN’s women focused Hindi GEC Sony Pal with 542.828 million weekly impressions in week 26 as compared to rank four and 601.848 million weekly impressions in week 25 of 2018. Sony Pal was ranked fifth and was ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi channels in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R) respectively and was ranked seventh in HSM (U). The sitcom Tarak Mehta ka Ooltah Chashmah aired on Sony Pal was ranked third in BARC’s list of top five Hindi GEC programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (R).

Star India’s flagship Hindi GEC Star Plus re-entered BARC’s across genres weekly list in week 26 of 2018 at eighth rank with 531.658 million weekly impressions. Star Plus was ranked sixth in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi channels in HSM (U+R) and was ranked third in HSM (U). The Indian musical television series Kulfi Kumar Bajewala which aired on Star Plus was ranked fifth in BARC’s list of top five Hindi GEC programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U).

Star India’s flagship Telugu GEC Star Maa was ranked ninth in week 26 with 528.706 million weekly impressions as compared to eighth rank and 520.024 million weekly impressions in week 25 of 2018. Star Maa was ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top five Telugu channels in the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana market. Three programmes that were aired on Star Maa were present in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 five Telugu programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week.

Zeel’s flagship Telugu GEC Zee Telugu was ranked tenth in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genre list with 509.048 million weekly impressions in week 26 as compared to ninth rank with 519.127 million weekly impressions in week 25 of 2018. Zee Telugu was ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of top five Telugu channels in the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana market. Two programmes that were aired on Zee Telugu were present in BARC’s weekly list of top five Telugu programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week.

July 6, 2018
Star TV leads Malayalam, Telugu regions in BARC week 26

MUMBAI: Star TV’s regional channels Asianet and Star Maa are leading the Malayalam and Telugu languages while ZEEL’s regional channels Zee Bangla and Zee Marathi continue to rule their respective languages of Bengali and Marathi in Broadcast Audience Research Council ratings for week 26. Big Ganga has again been pushed back to second position, while Bhojpuri Cinema became number one. There wasn’t much change in the hierarchy for Kannada and Tamil with Colors Kannada and Sun TV retaining their top slots.

Bangla

This week in the Bengali market, all channels saw an increase in their gross viewership as compared to last week. Zee Bangla continued to be placed in the numero uno spot in week 26 as well with an increase in viewership from 265682 impressions (000s) as recorded last week to 291010 impressions (000s) this week. Star Jalsha too remained in the second slot with 279654 impressions (000s) followed by Jalsha Movies, Colors Bangla and Aakash Aath, who retained their third, fourth and fifth positions this week with 70701 impressions (000s), 50960 impressions (000s) and 43004 impressions (000s) respectively.

Bhojpuri

This week Bhojpuri Cinema gained the highest number of viewership with 40195 impressions (000s), while Big Ganga came second with 37069 impressions (000s). Bhojpuri Dhamaka Dishum and Oscar Movies Bhojpuri retained their third and fourth slots with 5912 impressions (000s) and 1775 impressions (000s) respectively. News 18 Bihar Jharkhand came as a new entrant in the fifth position with 1442 impressions (000s) dethroning Mahuaa Plus which was in the fifth position last week.

Marathi

This week the Marathi market didn’t notice much change. Zee Marathi continued to be placed in the number one position with 285175 impressions (000s). Zee Talkies gained second position with 145412 impressions (000s) pushing back Colors Marathi to third position with 125842 impressions (000s), followed by Star Pravah and Zee Yuva in fourth and fifth positions with 103300 impressions (000s) and 51204 impressions (000s) respectively.

Kannada

Kannada region didn’t see any change this week, however, all the channels saw an increase in their gross viewership. Colors Kannada retained its number one slot with 389352 impressions (000s), followed by Zee Kannada – 318173 impressions (000s), Udaya TV – 231290 impressions (000s), Udaya Movies – 189109 impressions (000s) and Star Suvarna – 167073 impressions (000s).

Malayalam

Malayalam market also remained unchanged this week. Asianet, the Malayalam channel of Star TV retained its number one position this week with 299372 impressions (000s). Flowers TV maintained second position 92267 impressions (000s). Surya TV and Mazhavil Manorama retained their third and fourth positions with 88243 impressions (000s) and 83197 impressions (000s) respectively. Asianet Movies remained in the fifth position with 61754 impressions (000s).

Tamil

Zee Tamil climbed up to second position with 429632 impressions (000s) pushing back Star Vijay to third position this week with 423667 impressions (000s). Sun TV and KTV held their first and fourth positions with 916957 impressions (000s) and 287961 impressions (000s). Colors Tamil retained its fifth position with 74877 impressions (000s). But this week, the all channels in this market saw an increase in their gross viewership except Colors Tamil.

Telugu

Zee Telugu and Star Maa swapped their first and second positions with total viewership of 490189 impressions (000s) and 491392 impressions (000s). Gemini TV, ETV Telugu and Gemini Movies retained their respective third, fourth and fifth positions with 400387 impressions (000s), 379331 impressions (000s) and 160935 impressions (000s).

July 6, 2018