Category: Viewership

BARC week 10: News18 India enters HSM top 5

MUMBAI: New18 India entered the top-five list in all the three genres of Broadcast Audience Research Council’s (BARC) week 10 ratings for 2018. Republic TV continued its leading streak while Aaj Tak topped the charts in all three Hindi news markets.

English news

Republic TV retained its numero uno position with 822 impressions (000s) sum compared to 1223 impressions (000s) sum last week. Times Now was at the second spot with 718 impressions (000s) sum followed by India Today Television with 530 impressions (000s) sum compared to 814 impressions (000s) sum in week 9 of 2018. NDTV 24×7 entered the top-five list at fourth position with 331 impressions (000s) sum.

CNN News18 dropped a slot to fifth position with 330 impressions (000s) sum as against 516 impressions (000s) sum last week. Mirror Now exited the top-five list in week 10.

English business news

CNBC TV18 was at the top slot with 684 impressions (000s) sum compared to 636 impressions (000s) sum last week, followed by ET Now with 236 impressions (000s) sum. BTVi and CNBC TV18 Prime HD were at third and fourth positions, respectively, with 48 impressions (000s) sum and 22 impressions (000s) sum.

Hindi news (urban + rural [U+R])

Aaj Tak led the genre with 112008 impressions (000s) sum as against 265508 impressions (000s) sum. India TV climbed two slots to the second position with 91748 impressions (000s) sum.

News18 India entered the top five at third position with 85826 impressions (000s) sum.

ABP News and Zee News dropped two slots to the fourth and fifth positions with 82516 and 784714 impressions (000s) sum.

Hindi news rural

Aaj Tak was on the top of the rural list as well with 51553 impressions (000s) sum followed by ABP News with 38628 impressions (000s) sum. India TV climbed two slots to the third position with 35741 impressions (000s) sum.

Zee News dropped a rung to the third position with 63129 impressions (000s) sum.

News Nation was at the fourth position with 35631 impressions (000s) sum. News18 India entered the top-5 list at fifth position with 33269 impressions (000s) sum. Zee News exited from the top-five list from third position last week.

Hindi News Urban

Aaj Tak retains its top slot with 60454 impressions (000s) sum. India TV climbs two slots to the second position with 56007 impressions (000s) sum. News18 India enters the top 5 list at third position with 52556 impressions (000s) sum.

Zee News drops a slot to the fourth position with 45635 impressions (000s) sum. ABP News drops three slots to the fifth position with 43888 impressions (000s) sum. News Nation exited the top 5 list.

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BARC week 9: Mirror Now enters the top-5 list

March 15, 2018
Lone non-Hindi Sun TV rules across channels list

BENGALURU: Numero uno is the position that Sun TV holds in Broadcast Audience Research Council’s (BARC) weekly television ratings for the top 10 channels across genre across in India for age 2+ almost throughout the year. The only exception so far has been during the IPL weeks that the highly cricket hungry Indians consume the dominant channel that airs that mega event. Last year it was Sony Max. Now back to Sun TV – besides the across genre weekly lists, the channel has headed BARC’s weekly ratings for top 5 Tamil channels in the Tamil Nadu/Puducherry markets. This was also the case in week 9 of 2018 (Saturday, 24 February 2018 to Friday, 2 March 2018) – as usual, the Sun TV Network’s flagship Tamil GEC channel topped BARC’s list of top 10 channels across genre, as well as BARC’s list of top 5 Tamil channels. And also, as has been a norm, all the five top Tamil programmes during primetime in week 9 of 2018 were aired on Sun TV. But at the same time, the channel’s ratings have been dropping and the gap in ratings between it and the second-ranked channel in the top 10 across genre channels has been narrowing.

Overall, the combined ratings of the top 10 channels across genre declined by about 2 per cent in week 9 as compared to week 8 of 2018. One Tamil channel, two Hindi movies channel and seven Hindi GEC channels made up BARC’s list of top 10 channels across genre. Week 9 of 2018 has seen a bit of a shakeup of sorts for BARC’s list of top 10 channels across genre. Three channels each from Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and Star India, two channels from Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) and one channel each from the Sun TV Network and Network 18 made up the list of the top 10 channels across genre during the week under review.

As mentioned above, Sun TV topped the across genre list, though with lower ratings of 895.453 million weekly impressions in week 9 of 2018 as compared to the previous week’s 958.551 million weekly impressions. Sun TV was followed by SPN’s women-focused FTA Hindi GEC Sony Pal which climbed up two ranks with 757.432 million weekly impressions. The channel had scored 682.137 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Sony Pal was also ranked one in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GEC channels list for week 9 of 2018 in the all India urban (U) and rural (R) Hindi speaking markets (HSM). The long-running crime show CID on Sony Pal was among the top 5 Hindi programmes and Balveer and Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah were also among the top 5 Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in HSM (R).

Trailing very close behind Sony Pal at third rank with a difference of just 4000 weekly impressions in week 9 of 2018 was Star India’s FTA Hindi GEC Star Bharat with 757.428 million weekly impressions. Star Bharat was ranked second in the top 10 Hindi GEC channels in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) and was ranked third in HSM (R) in the week under review. Star Bharat was ranked second in the top 10 channels across genre in the previous week with 762.407 million weekly impressions.

At fourth rank in week 9 of 2018 was Zeel’s FTA Hindi GEC Zee Anmol with 686.766 million weekly impressions as compared to the previous week’s third rank and 715.586 million weekly impressions. The Balaji Telefilms produced family soap Kumkum Bhagya on Zee Anmol was among the top 5 Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R). Another soap Ganga that had been aired on the channel was among the top 5 Hindi GEC programmes in HSM (R).

SPN’s Hindi Movies channel Sony Max climbed up to fifth place in week 9 of 2018 with 562.587 million weekly impressions. The channel had been ranked tenth in the list with 507.975 million weekly impressions in week 8 of 2018. The channel also topped BARC’s lists of top 5 Hindi movies channels in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) and was ranked fifth in HSM (R). The magnum opus Bahubali – The Beginning was among the top five Hindi movies programmes during primetime in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) in week 9 of 2018. Other movies that were aired on Sony Max – Sultan and Kanchana 2 were among the top 5 Hindi movies programmes HSM (U) during the week under review.

Zeel’s Hindi GEC Zee TV was ranked 6 in week 9 of 2018 with 551.884 million weekly impressions as compared to the previous week’s rank 5 and viewership of 600.766 million weekly impressions. Kundali Bhagya, a spinoff of Kumkum Bhagya, which also aired on the channel, topped the list of top 5 Hindi GEC programmes in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U). Kundali Bhagya, which also aired in Zee TV, was among the top 5 Hindi GEC programmes in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U).

Another Star India FTA Hindi GEC channel Star Utsav climbed up a rank to seventh place in week 9 of 2018 with 536.603 million weekly impressions as compared to the previous week’s 543.582 million weekly impressions. Network 18’s flagship Hindi GEC Colors was ranked eighth with 508.570 million weekly impressions as compared to the previous week’s rank six and 574.408 million weekly impressions.

Another SPN Hindi movies channel Sony Wah, which entered the top 10 channels across genre list was ranked ninth in week 9 of 2018 with 592.512 million weekly impressions. Sony Wah was ranked first in HSM (R), ranked second in HSM (U+R) and ranked fifth in HSM (U) lists for top 5 Hindi movies channels in week 9 of 2018. Hindi feature film Yevadu 2 was among the top five Hindi movies programmes during primetime in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) and HSM (R). Another HFF – Shivaji the Boss, which was aired on the channel, was also among the top 5 Hindi movies programmes during primetime in week 9 of 2018 in HSM (R).

Star India’s flagship Hindi GEC Star Plus was ranked tenth in week 9 of 2018 with 497.433 million weekly impressions as compared to the previous week’s rank 7 and 573.432 million weekly impressions. Another Balaji Telefilms produced soap – Yeh Hai Mohabbatein, which aired on Star Plus, was among the top 5 Hindi GEC’s in HSM (U) during the week. Star Plus was also ranked third in HSM (U) during the week.

Also Read :

ETV Telugu re-enters across genre list

Star Bharat continues to top Hindi GECs across genres

Sony Max returns to top-10 channels in across genre list

March 12, 2018
BARC week 9: Mirror Now enters the top-5 list

MUMBAI: Mirror Now joined the party and entered the top 5 list of Broadcast Audience Research Council’s (BARC) week 9 ratings for 2018. Republic TV continues its leading streak while ABP News jumps to the second slot in all the three market. Aaj Tak tops the chart in all three Hindi News markets.

English News

The viewership for all the channels more than doubled in BARC All India week 9 data. Republic TV retained its numero uno position with 1223 impressions (000s) sum compared to 593 impressions (000s) sum last week. Times Now is at the second spot with 1034 impressions (000s) sum followed by India Today Television with 814 impressions (000s) sum compared to 337 impressions (000s) sum in week 8 of 2018. CNN News18 is in the fourth position with 516 impressions (000s) sum compared to 211 impressions (000s) sum last week. Mirror Now joined the party and entered the top five list at the fifth position with 321 impressions (000s) sum. NDTV 24X7 exits the top five list in week 9 of BARC All India data.

English Business News

CNBC TV18 is at the top slot witnessing a drop with 636 impressions (000s) sum compared to 804 impressions (000s) sum last week, followed by ET Now with 206 impressions (000s) sum. BTVi and CNBC TV18 Prime HD are at third and fourth positions respectively with 73 impressions (000s) sum and 20 impressions (000s) sum.

Hindi News (U+R)

Aaj Tak leads the genre with 265508 impressions (000s) sum. ABP News enters the top 5 list at the second position with 259622 impressions (000s) sum followed by Zee News at the third position with 152917 impressions (000s) sum. India TV drops two slots to the fourth position with 134206 impressions (000s) sum. News Nation sits at fifth position with 118815 Impressions (000s) sum. News18 India exited the top 5list.

Hindi News Rural

Aaj Tak tops the rural chart as well with 112631 impressions (000s) sum followed by ABP News, which made an entry in the top 5 list at the second position with 108022 impressions (000s) sum. Zee News drops a slot to the third position with 63129 impressions (000s) sum. News Nation climbs a slot to the fourth position with 56836 impressions (000s) sum. India TV is at fifth position with 49051 impressions (000s) sum. India News and News18 India which were in the third and fourth position are not present in the week 8 data.

Hindi News Urban

Aaj Tak retains its top slot with 152877 impressions (000s) sum. ABP News jumps three slots to the second position with 151600 impressions (000s) sum. Zee News climbs a slot to the third position with 89787 impressions (000s) sum. India TV drops to slots to the fourth position with 85155 impressions (000s) sum.

News Nation enters the top 5 list at fifth position with 61979 impressions (000s) sum. News18 India exited the top 5 list in week 9.

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BARC partners Airtel Digital TV for return path data

Regional to be at the forefront of content

March 8, 2018
BARC week 9: Sony Pal tops Hindi GEC (U+R) markets

MUMBAI: Sony Pal emerged as the leader in Hindi GEC (U+R) markets dethroning Star Bharat in week 9 of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) all India data. Sony Pal has taken jumped two slots to take pole position in the Hindi GEC (U+R) markets while Zee Anmol has shifted to the third position from second as compared to week 8 of BARC India data.

In the Hindi GEC rural market, Zee Anmol retained its leadership position. Star Bharat jumped to the third slot pushing Star Utsav to the fourth slot.

In Hindi GEC urban markets, no major change has been witnessed in week 9. All the ten channels in urban markets have retained their positions with Colors topping the urbanchart.

Hindi GEC (U+R)

Sony Pal topped the chart with 753407 impressions (000s). Week 8’s leader Star Bharat was pushed to the second position with 750429 impressions (000s). Zee Anmol slid down to the third slot this week from second, as compared to last week of BARC India.

Star Utsav jumped two slots to the fourth position with 530012 impressions (000s). Zee TV has fallen to the fifth position with 522300 impressions (000s). Colors, by falling two slots down as compared to last week, booked the sixth place with 488058 impressions (000s).

Star Plus, Rishtey, SET and Sony Sab retained their seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth positions with 455366 impressions (000s), 436296 impressions (000s), 431930 impressions (000s) and 404767 impressions (000s).

Hindi Rural GEC

Zee Anmol retained its first position with 532931 impressions (000s). Sony Pal retained its second position with 517747 impressions (000s). Star Bharat climbed to the third slot this week with 402760 impressions (000s). Star Utsav booked fourth position with 384218 impressions (000s).

Rishtey, Dangal TV, Zee TV retained their fifth, sixth and seventh positions with 307442 impressions (000s), 231124 impressions (000s) and 212838 impressions (000s).

Big Magic and Star Plus have swapped their last week’s positions with the former at eighth with 181473 impressions (000s) and Star Plus at ninth with 139194 impressions (000s). Colors retained its tenth position with 137280 impressions (000s).
Hindi Urban GEC

In urban GEC, Colors and Star Bharat retained their first and second positions with 350778 impressions (000s) and 347669 impressions (000s), respectively.

Star Plus and Zee TV also maintained their third and fourth positions this week with 316171 impressions (000s) and 309461 impressions (000s), respectively.

Also Read:

Viacom’s Colors & Rishtey lead the charts in BARC week 6

Star Bharat leads Hindi GEC (U+R) in BARC week 52

Zee Anmol leads Hindi GEC (U+R) in BARC week 1 2018

March 8, 2018
BARC partners Airtel Digital TV for return path data

MUMBAI: Taking a big step towards using return path data (RPD) for TV viewership measurement, BARC India has tied up with Airtel Digital TV, Airtel’s DTH arm, for including its subscriber homes into the BARC India RPD panel. This partnership will provide a fillip to BARC India’s plan of scaling up panel homes to multiples of the mandated 50,000.

RPD is used globally for collecting viewership data. However, BARC India’s plan to integrate it into the TV viewership currency is a global first. Random selection will be undertaken among the selected RPD homes to include them in the currency panel for the overall Airtel Digital TV universe share in the TV ecosystem.

In October last year, BARC India had signed on multi system operator DEN Networks for measuring TV viewership using RPD. By tying up with Airtel Digital TV, BARC India has added a significant DTH subscriber base to its proposed RPD panel. It will use a portion of Airtel Digital TV’s subscriber base to measure TV viewership via RPD.

The move will not only make BARC India data more robust but will also help address the issue of panel home tampering.

“Our partnership with Airtel Digital TV will strengthen our RPD rollout plan. Panel home expansion is absolutely critical for us considering the diversity in the country which is visible even in the way TV content is consumed. RPD, will give the industry a cost-effective way of expanding panel home size. The distribution platform owners too will benefit with RPD. It will give them a better understanding into what their subscribers are consuming on TV. This will help the industry at large,” said BARC India CBO Romil Ramgarhia.

Bharti Airtel DTH CEO Sunil Taldar said, “We are pleased to partner BARC India and support their endeavour of compiling robust TV viewership insights. A credible resource like this will benefit the entire ecosystem including content producers, marketers and help in enhancing the experience for customers.”

March 7, 2018
Women contribute significantly to Hindi news viewership: BARC

MUMBAI: The ongoing FICCI Frames 2018 saw a session titled ‘The Future of TV’ wherein Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) CEO Partho Dasgupta laid down numbers and research to indicate that the future of television is bright. Contrary to general perception, BARC research shows that women made a significant contribution to the Hindi news genre in 2017.

During the time of demonetisation in 2016 and during week 45, the viewership ratings grew by 56 per cent with the overall 52 per cent male viewership and 62 per cent female viewership. Meanwhile, on 31 December when the news Rastra Ke Naam Sandesh was being aired, the viewership grew by 3.5 times.

The viewership also grew by 3.2 times during the UP elections, whereas the Gujarat/Himachal Pradesh elections garnered fewer eyeballs. Dasgupta states that Hindi content rules television. Hindi general entertainment channels (GEC) had reached 499 million in a week in 2017. Hindi movies, music, news and kids among others garnered positions reaching up to 471 million, 319 million, 309 million and 255 million viewers each week respectively in 2017.

The catch as to why Hindi content is highly watched is because viewers are dazzled by the lavish and ‘feel good’ settings. Mahasangams grab more eyeballs than marriages and jail tracks in GECs. Such topics boost viewership by 20 per cent over the previous one. Marriage and jail tracks lead to 13 per cent and 15 per cent hike in the ratings respectively.

An interesting aspect was that total viewership during festival holidays saw higher spike in the Southern market while the Hindi market maintains stability. On public holidays, viewership shoots up in both regions.

He also drove out misconceptions about who is responsible for the low depths low depths to which news TV in India has sunk. Journalists drive ratings with 25 per cent contribution, business heads or owners with 33 per cent and the viewers with 42 per cent. It clearly indicates that the viewers are the driving force for the decrease in viewership.

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March 7, 2018
Star Bharat continues to top Hindi GECs across genres

BENGALURU: During the first eight weeks of 2018 (Saturday, 30 December 2017 to Friday, 23 February 2018), honours have been divided equally by two Hindi free-to-air (FTA) GEC channels as far as topping Hindi GECs in Broadcast Audience Research Council’s (BARC) weekly lists of the top 10 television channels across genres goes. In weeks 1, 3, 4 and 5, it was Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) Hindi GEC channel Zee Anmol that was ranked second after the Sun TV Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV in BARC’s across genre list. In weeks 2, 6, 7 and now week 8 it is Star India Private Limited (Star India) Hindi GEC Star Bharat that was ranked second after Sun TV in the lists.

As in the case during the past few weeks, seven Hindi GECs, of which four were FTA, and one channel each from the Hindi Movies, Tamil and Telugu channels made it to BARC’s list of top 10 channels across genre. Also, as in the case of the past few weeks, four Star India GECs’ – three Hindi and one Telugu; two Hindi GECs’ from Zeel; one FTA Hindi GEC and one Hindi movies channel from Sony Pictures Network India (SPN); and one GEC each from the Sun TV Network and Network18 comprised the top 10 channels across genres list for week 8 of 2018 (Saturday, 17 February 2018 to Friday, 23 February 2018).

As mentioned above, Sun TV topped the across genre list in week 8 of 2018 with 985.551 million impressions. The channel also topped BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Tamil channels in the Tamil Nadu(TN)/Puducherry markets. All the top 5 Tamil programmes during primetime in these markets were aired on Sun TV during the week under review.

Star Bharat was ranked second in BARC’s across genres list with slightly higher ratings at 762.407 million weekly impressions in week 8 of 2018 as compared to the previous week’s 755.591 million weekly impressions. The channel also topped BARC’s ranking of the top 10 Hindi GEC channels in the urban (U) and rural (R) Hindi speaking market (HSM) and was ranked second in HSM (U). Its soap Nimki Mukhiya was among the top 5 Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in HSM (U+R).

Zee Anmol was ranked third in the week under consideration with 715.586 million weekly impressions. The channel was ranked first in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GEC channels in HSM (R) and was ranked second in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GEC channels in HSM (U+R).

The Balaji Telefilms-produced family soap Kumkum Bhagya that featured on the channel was ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R). Another programme that also featured on the channel in the HSM (R) list of top 5 programmes during primetime and was aired on Zee Anmol was Jamai Raja.

In week 8 of 2018, SPN’s FTA women focused Hindi GEC Sony Pal was ranked fourth – the same as the previous week. The channel garnered 682.137 million weekly impressions in week 8 of 2018. Sony Pal was also ranked third in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GEC channels in HSM (U+R) and was ranked second in HSM (R). Three programmes, Baalveer, Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah and CID, that were aired on Sony Pal were among the top 5 Hindi GEC programmes in HSM (R).

At rank five in week 8 of 2018 was Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV (same rank as week 7) with higher ratings of 600.766 million weekly impressions as compared to 587.318 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Kumkum Bhagya that is also being aired on Zee TV and its spinoff Kundali Bhagya were amongst the top 5 Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in HSM (U+R) and HSM(U).

Viacom18’s flagship Hindi GEC Colors was ranked sixth in week 8 of 2018 with 574.408 million weekly impressions. The channel topped BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GEC channels in HSM (U). Shakti – Astitva Ke Ehsaas Ki that aired on the channel was among the top 5 Hindi GEC channels in HSM (U).

Star India’s flagship Hindi GEC Star Plus climbed two ranks from last week’s ninth to seventh in week 8 of 2018 with 573.432 million weekly impressions. The channel had scored 522.697 million weekly impressions in week 7 of 2018. Star Plus was also ranked third among the top 10 Hindi GEC channels in HSM (U). The Balaji Telefilms-produced soap Yeh Hai Mohabbateinwas among BARC’s list of top 5 Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in HSM (U).

Another Star India FTA Hindi GEC Star Utsav was ranked eighth in week 8 of 2018 in the across genres list with 543.482 million weekly impressions to the previous week’s 553.212 million weekly impressions. Star Utsav was ranked third in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GEC’s in HSM (R).

Star India’s flagship Telugu GEC Star Maa was ranked ninth in week 8 of 2018 in BARC’s across genre list with 538.662 million weekly impressions. In week 7 of 2018, the channel was ranked seventh with 561.696 million weekly impressions. The channel topped BARC’s list of top 5 Telugu channels in the Andhra Pradesh/Telangana market. Like the previous week, 4 of the top 5 Telugu programmes during primetime in the same market were aired on Star Maa.

SPN’s Hindi Movies channel Sony Max was ranked tenth in week 18 of 2018 in BARC’s across genre list with 507.975 million weekly impressions, higher than the 501.759 million weekly impressions of week 7 of 2018. Sony Max topped BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi movies channels during the week under consideration in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) and the channel was amongst BARC’s list of top 5 Hindi movies channels in HSM (R).

Also Read :

ETV Telugu re-enters across genre list

Sun TV, Star Maa only non-Hindi players in across genre list

Star Bharat continues leading Hindi GECs across genres

March 5, 2018
News consumption in South Indian languages during first 7 weeks of 2018

BENGALURU: Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has started publishing weekly viewership data of top 5 news channels in each of the four South Indian languages in their respective markets since week 1 of 2018 ( Saturday, 30 December 2017 to Friday 5 January 2018) in the public domain. There are a number of news channels in each of the four southern languages. At the time of writing of this paper, data is available up to week 7 of 2018 (Saturday, 10 February 2018 to Friday, 16 February 2018). The languages and respective markets are Tamil – Puducherry/Tamil Nadu (TN); Telugu – Andhra Pradesh (AP) /Telangana; Kannada – Karnataka; Malayalam – Kerala. The audience profile is urban and rural: NCCS 2+ individuals. Saturday, 30 December 2017 to Friday, 16 February 2018 is the period under consideration or review in this paper. The impressions mentioned are generally the combined weekly impressions of the top 5 news channels of each language or the combined weekly impressions of each channel during the period under consideration. Only those channels that have appeared in BARC’s lists of top 5 channels for each language have been considered in this paper, with a mention of the periodic entrants to the lists.

Comparing news consumption in each of the markets, based on BARC’s combined weekly impressions data for top 5 news channels, news seems to be most watched in Telugu in the AP/Telangana and in Kannada in the Karnataka markets during the first seven weeks of 2018. Tamil news in the TN/Puducherry followed by Malayalam news in Kerala complete the four southern languages.

News viewership is generally event driven. The biggest event during the first seven weeks of 2018 was the announcement of the budget by Indian finance minister Arun Jaitley. Budget week or week 5 of 2018 (Saturday, 27 January 2018 to Friday, 2 February 2018) seems not to have made too much of an impact in terms of viewership growth for three of the four southern languages based on the sum of the weekly impressions of each week for each language (combined weekly impressions) While viewership of the top 5 news channels seems to have peaked in week 5 of 2018 for Kannada, it was the highest in week 6 (Saturday, 3 February 2018 to Friday 9 February 2018) in the case of Telugu and Malayalam. Combined viewership on the top 5 Tamil news channels seems to be declining – it had peaked in week 2 of 2018 (Saturday 6 January 2018 to Friday 12 January 2018).

Please refer to the figure below for combined weekly impressions of the top 5 news channels in each of the four southern languages.

In all the 4 languages, the order in ranks in terms of viewership of the top 3 or 4 channels has generally been the same. Week 7 of 2018 has seen some shuffling and upsets in ranks in the southern news channels.

Tamil News

Four channels have appeared during all the first seven weeks of 2018 in BARC’s weekly list for top 5 Tamil News channels. Polimer News was numero uno during all the first seven weeks of 2018 in terms of impressions garnering 245,313 impressions during the period under consideration in this paper. Puthiya Thalaimurai was ranked second during the first seven weeks of 2017 in terms of total impressions during the period – the channel garnered 202,887 impressions. The channel was ranked second during weeks 1,2,4 5 and 6 and ranked third in weeks 3 and 7 of 2018.

Thanti TV was the third most watched Tamil News channel between weeks 1 and 7 of 2018. Thanti TV was ranked second in weeks 3 and 7 and ranked third in weeks 1,2,4 5 and 6. The channel had 193,582 impressions during the first seven weeks of 2018.

News 7 Tamil was the fourth most watched Tamil News channel with 129,361 impressions during weeks 1 to 7 of 2018. The channel was ranked fourth between weeks 1 to 4 and 6 and 7 of 2017. In week 5 of 2017 the channel was ranked fifth. Sun News was the fifth most watchedchannel with 96,478 impressions during the first seven weeks of 2018. The channel was present in 6 of 7 weeks of 2018 among BARC’s weekly lists of 5 most watched Tamil news channels. Sun News exited the list in week 7 of 2017 to be replaced by News18 Tamil Nadu. Whilst in the top 5 Tamil news channels list, Sun News had weekly impressions of 96,478.

Telugu News

Four channels have been among BARC’s top 5 Telugu news channels during all the first 7 weeks of 2018, but with some shuffling in ranks. The biggest upset seems to be TV9 Telugu, which dropped to rank 2 in week 7 of 2018 from the first rank that it had held during the first six weeks of 2018. The second ranked NTV Telugu clambered to the first rank in week 7 of 2018.

During the period under review, TV9 Telugu was the most watched Telugu news channel with 345,162 impressions, followed by NTV Telugu with 293,500 impressions. TV 5 News was the third most watched Telugu News channel during the first 7 weeks of 2018 with 232,425 impressions. The channel was ranked third for the first 5 weeks of 2018, only to drop to rank 4 in week 6 and to drop even further to rank 5 in week 7 of 2018.

V6 News was the fourth most watched Telugu News channel during the first 7 weeks of 2018 with 214,283 impressions. The channel’s viewership seems to be improving with time. It was ranked fifth during the first four weeks of 2018, it climbed to rank 4 in week 5 and to rank 3 in weeks 6 and 7 of 2018.

Two channels – ABN Andhra Jy oti and 10 TV were also present in BARC’s list of top 5 Telugu news channels for four and three weeks each respectively.

Kannada News

In the Kannada news space, the ranks in terms of viewership seem to be well defined. The first four weeks saw the same news channels appear in the same rank and order for the five ranks. From week 5 of 2018, rank five has been a contest between two channels.

TV9 Kannada, Public TV, Suvarna News and News18 Kannada were the first, second, third and fourth most watched Kannada news channels respectively during the first 7 weeks of 2018. At first rank was TV9 Kannada with 484,427 impressions, followed by Public TV with 321,758 impressions during the period under consideration. Suvarna News was ranked third with 170,233 impressions followed by News 18 with 120,760 impressions.

BTV was ranked fifth during weeks 1 to 4 and week 6 of 2018. It exited BARC’s top 5 list in weeks 5 and 7 of 2018 to be replaced by Dighvijay 24×7 News.

Malayalam News

Four channels have consistently appeared in BARC’s top 5 Malayalam news channels list during the first 7 weeks of 2018. Three of them – Asianet News (235,849 impressions), Manorama News (107,903 impressions) and Mathrubhumi News (82,472 impressions) have been ranked first, second and third respectively in BARC’s lists during the first 7 weeks of 2018. The fourth channel – News 18 Kerala (36,972 impressions) has seen a small upset – it had moved down to rank 5 in week 7 of 2017 from the fourth rank that it consistently held during the first six weeks of 2018. Media One TV was in BARC’s list for weeks 1, 2, 4, 5 at rank 5 of 2018. It has climbed up a rank to fourth in week 7 of 2018. Two other channels – Janam TV (week 3 of 2018) and People TV (week 6 of 2018) were present in BARC’s weekly lists of top 5 Malayalam News channels during the period under review).

Also Read :

Demystifying news television viewership in 2017

No change in channels in across genres list in first week of 2018

February 27, 2018
Urban areas dominate DD viewership: Zapr

MUMBAI: Once the sole television provider in India, Doordarshan (DD) has survived the onslaught of television privatisation over decades. TV analytics conducted on DD channels provide insights into its diverse content across sports, Hindi entertainment and news and how the broadcaster is still relevant for India’s TV population. In 2003, DD radically changed its monetisation plan by paying private producers for prime-time shows to promote new content and open advertising avenues on its channels. With data-driven audience segmentation being an important prerequisite for media planners to set priority markets for their branded content, Zapr Media Labs (Zapr) has mapped out viewership trends of DD channels at the individual user level. From channel level analysis to geographic positioning of viewers, the study even traces migration patterns to see how DD viewers are switching channels across the Indian Television landscape. The company has analysed DD channels over three months—September, October and November 2017—and mapped out current trends in reach, viewership and audience migration. Over the considered period, there was a gradual rise (165.7 million) and fall (92.4 million) in audience reach and 4 per cent non-DD viewers (August) started watching DD in September. Deep-diving into DD’s viewership trends, the study found 59.20 per cent of urban viewership share for the pubcaster’s channels. These insights were derived from Zapr’s active user-base comprising over 40 million smartphones.

DD’s viewership over September, October and November

DD channels’ viewership ranged from 165.7 million to 117.1 million during week 36 and week 37. This viewership spike is before and during the India-Australia ODI series. The chart below shows the viewership of the broadcaster across weeks:

DD’s top-ten channels

DD channels are home to various genres, languages and television programmes. The top-ten list comprised channels from across DD’s categories. Irrespective of the fact that the channel caters only to Hindi audiences, DD National (previously DD1) topped the list with an audience share of 23.90 per cent. This high viewership could pertain to the varied shows—serials, bhajans, news, cookery shows and even news for the hearing impaired (15 minutes daily) that ensures DD National has something for everyone.

DD National is followed by DD News (15 per cent) and DD Bharati (13.20 per cent) in terms of viewership. Interestingly, the sole international DD channel, DD India did not make it into top three and was followed by six regional channels—DD Madhya Pradesh (13.10 per cent), DD Yadagiri (12.80 per cent), DD Oriya (12.5 per cent), DD Kashir (12 per cent), DD Sahyadri (11.90 per cent) and DD Podhigai (11.59 per cent). DD prevails in metros and cities with million plus population. The report also identified geographical locations that claimed a major share in DD channels viewership. Delhi (30 per cent) claimed the top position in the metro cities list, followed by Mumbai (25 per cent), Chennai (16 per cent), Bengaluru (11 per cent) and Kolkata (11 per cent). For brands and media planners, these insights reveal deterministic geo-segmentation by actual content consumption, something which large sample TV data cannot provide. The chart below also indicates viewership share across top five cities distributed across tier-2 populations. These stats show Pune with the highest viewership share (17.30 per cent). The top city is followed by Ahmedabad (9.40 per cent), Bhopal (6.20 per cent), Jaipur (6 per cent) and Lucknow (5 per cent) based on actual actual audience share for DD channels.

Urban folks flock towards DD

The urban segment claimed a substantial viewership share of 59.20 per cent over rural regions (40.70 per cent). With studies reporting higher socio-economic position among urban audiences, this urban skew among DD viewer suggests that their buying power is not lagging behind other TV segments across paid channels. For media planners, DD channels and their upward-mobile audiences constitute a trough of unexplored opportunities compared to largely cluttered spots on more commercialised channels.

DD caters to viewers across the TV spectrum

Cricket broadcasts such as Sri Lanka vs India T20I and Micromax Cup Sri Lanka vs India 2017 ODI Series and news telecasts such as News Night, Batmya and Samachar occupy top positions in the list of most-watched prime-time shows on DD channels. With significant overlaps between the viewers of cricket tours and sport leagues such as the IPL. Marketers can tap into high-value TV segments and reach them on cost-effective spots using surrogate targeting offerings, DD’s top five primetime shows based on viewership have been listed below.

DD National penetrates Urban India with purely Hindi content

To understand how language influences viewership at a national level, Zapr looked at DD’s popular all-India channels—DD National and DD Sports. Interestingly, DD National with its single-language content in Hindi had higher viewership skew towards urban audiences (63 per cent) compared to its rural counterpart (37 per cent). DD Sports with its bilingual telecasts in Hindi and English witnessed smaller difference between its urban (55 per cent) and rural (45 per cent) markets. Our analysis indicates that DD’s all-india content in Hindi which began as instructive and informative content for India’s largely rural masses has now majorly penetrated much of urban India. Are marketers keeping up with DD’s evolution from Bharat to India?

Non-FTA to FTA

To further understand purchase power of DD viewers, Zapr mapped out DD audience overlaps with free-to-air (FTA) channels exclusive of DD content and non-FTA channels. As the name suggests, FTA channels are accessible without subscription charges and according to Zapr data, 55.6 per cent of DD viewers tune into these channels regularly. Interestingly, the data reveals larger skew towards with non-FTAs or pay channels with an overlap of 58.4 per cent, suggesting that DD audiences have high propensity to spend on premium content.

Migration to DD channels post agency accreditation

The growing commercialisation of television indicates more focused marketing efforts across TV segments. Zapr wanted to understand the impact of DD’s agency accreditation in September 2017 when the network opened commercial ad-spots and a round of new TV content on 30+ DD channels. “TV analytics at Zapr reveal that there has been a 4 per cent rise in DD viewership from August to September suggesting a shift towards DD channels which could be an early positive result of the broadcaster’s agency accreditation plan. The 58.4 per cent overlap of DD viewers with Non-FTA channel viewers is also an incredible result,” Zapr VP (data insights) Aditya Kulkarni said.

DD has revamped its content and advertising avenues, and clearly succeeded in staying relevant to India’s dynamic media landscape. Armed with data-backed insights, broadcasters can optimise their content inventories and expand their TV audiences. Marketers can avoid clutter by targeting these growing segments, and ultimately stand strong in the minds of their priority markets.

Also read:

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BARC ratings: DD Sports in top 5 after 37 weeks

February 25, 2018
Four Star India channels again among top 10 in across genre list

BENGALURU: Four channels from Star India once again made it to Broadcast Audience Research Council’s (BARC) weekly list of top 10 channels across genre (all India – U+R: 2+ individuals) for week 7 of 2018 (Saturday, 10 February 2018 to Friday, 16 February 2018). The four channels with their ranks in week 7 of 2018 in the top 10 channels across genre list were – Star India’s FTA Hindi GEC Star Bharat which climbed to second rank from the preceding week’s third place; Telugu GEC Star Maa which also climbed up a rank to seventh place in the week under review; FTA Hindi GEC Star Utsav which descended a rank to eighth place in week 7 of 2018 to make way for its aforementioned Telugu GEC sibling; and Star India’s flagship Hindi GEC Star Plus which entered the top 10 channels list in week 7 of 2018 at ninth place. Earlier, in the previous year, the same four Star India channels had made it to the top 10 channels across genre in week 47 of 2017 (Saturday, 18 November 2017 to Friday, 24 November 2017).

Four Star India channels, two channels each from Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) and one channel each from Network 18 (Viacom 18) and the Sun TV Network made up the top 10 channels across genres list for week 7 of 2017. From the genre perspective, seven Hindi GEC channels and one channel each from Hindi Movies, Tamil GEC and Telugu genres comprised the list of top 10 channels across genre in week 7. Four of the channels were free to air (FTA) Hindi GEC channels.

At its regular first place was the Sun TV Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV with 984.137 million weekly impressions. Sun TV was also ranked first in BARC’s list of top 5 Tamil channels in the Puducherry/Tamil Nadu markets. As is also the norm, all the top 5 programmes in BARC’s list of top 5 Tamil programmes during primetime in the Puducherry/Tamil Nadu markets were aired on Sun TV.

Star Bharat was ranked second in week 7 of 2018 with 755.591 million weekly impressions. The channel was ranked first in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GEC channels in the Hindi speaking markets (HSM) in the urban (U) and rural (R) areas and was ranked second in BARC’s list of top 5 channels in HSM (U) during the week. Two Hindi soaps – Nimki Mukhiya and Kya Haal Mr Panchaal that were aired on Star Bharat were among the top 5 Hindi GEC programmes in HSM (U+R).

Zeel’s FTA Hindi GEC Zee Anmol slipped a rank in week 7 of 2018 to third place with 716.918 million weekly impressions. Zee Anmol was ranked second in BARC’s lists of top 10 Hindi GEC channels in HSM (U+R) and ranked first in HSM (R). The Balaji Telefilms-produced soap Kumkum Bhagya that was aired on Zee Anmol was among the top 5 programmes during primetime in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R). Another soap, Ganga, that was aired on the channel was among the top 5 Hindi GEC channels in HSM(R).

SPN’s women focused FTA Sony Pal retained its previous week’s fourth rank in week 7 of 2018 with higher ratings of 684.220 million weekly impressions. Sony Pal was ranked third and second in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GEC’s in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R) respectively. Three programmes that were aired on Sony Pal – Bal Veer, Tarak Mehta ka Ooltah Chashmah and CID were among the top 5 programmes in HSM (R).

Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV climbed up a rank to fifth place in week 7 of 2018 with 587.318 million weekly impressions. Kumkum Bhagya and its spinoff Kundali Bhagya were among the top 5 Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U).

Network 18’s flagship Hindi GEC Colors stepped down one rank to sixth place with 587.184 million weekly impressions. Colors was also ranked fourth in the top 10 Hindi GEC channels in HSM (U+R). Two programmes that were aired on Colors– a soap – Udaan and a reality show Rising Star were among the top 5 Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in HSM (U).

Star Maa was at seventh rank with 561.696 million weekly impressions. The channel topped BARC’s list of top 5 Telugu channels in the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana markets. Three programmes that were aired on Star Maa in week 7 of 2018 were among the top 5 Telegu programmes during primetime in the AP/Telangana markets.

Star Utsav was ranked eighth in week 7 of 2018 in BARC’s list of top 10 channels across genre with 553.212 million weekly impressions. The channel was ranked third in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GEC channels in HSM (R). Star Plus was ranked ninth during the week under consideration with 533.697 million weekly impressions. Star Plus also ranked third in BARC’s list of top10 Hindi GEC channels in HSM (U).

SPN’s Hindi movies channel Sony Max completed the list of top10 channels across genre in week 7 of 2018 with 501.759 million weekly impressions. Sony Max topped BARC’s list of top 5 Hindi movies channels in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R). It was also among the top 5 Hindi movies channels in HSM(R) with fifth rank. Hindi feature film Sooryavansham was among the top 5 Hindi movies programmes during primetime in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) and Theri and Kanchana Returns in HSM (U).

Also Read:

Sun TV, Star Maa only non-Hindi players in across genre list

Star Bharat continues leading Hindi GECs across genres

February 22, 2018