ITV

Tag: AajTak

  • Hindi channels prop up Top TV channels viewership as Star Utsav dominance continues

    Hindi channels prop up Top TV channels viewership as Star Utsav dominance continues

    BENGALURU: Television viewership in terms of weekly impressions declined 3.98 percent in Week 34 of 2020 (Week 34: Saturday, 22 August 2020 to Friday, 28 August 2020, week or period under review) as compared to the immediate previous week 33. Per Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly data in the public domain, overall TV+OOH viewership in Week 34 of 2020 was 16.9 billion weekly impressions as compared to 17.6 billion weekly impressions in Week 33. After a steady increase since Unlock 1.0 (Week 22 of 2020), the drop of 0.7 billion impressions was the steepest one since the country opened up after the Covid2019 Lockdown that had commenced on 25 March 2020 or midweek in Week 13 of 2020. At that time, home-tied Indians turned to the easiest and most accessible medium for live news. Indians wanted to know more and more about the new pandemic that had forced most of the world to suddenly stop. Television viewership shot up to 20.9 billion impressions in Week 14 of 2020, with the News genre recording the largest growth, while GEC viewership slid down. Four genres – GEC, Movies, News and Kids are normally responsible for more than 90 percent of television viewership. The breakup for the COVID2019 average between Weeks 2 to 4 of 2020 was: GEC at 52 percent, Movies at 23 percent, and News and Kids at 7 percent each, or a combined total of 89 percent. The breakup of the combined total of 94 percent for these four genres in Week 13 of 2020 was GEC 40 percent, Movies 29 percent, News 18 percent and Kids 7 percent. It must be noted that overall television viewership had climbed up 

    Despite the drop in Week 34 of 2020, TV viewership based on weekly impressions in Week 34 of 2020 was 1.4 percent more than the average of Weeks 2 to 4 of 2020 of 14.8 billion weekly impressions. The current ratings agency BARC along with the older one Nielsen commenced editions of “Crisis Consumption – Impact Of COVID -19 On TV And Smartphone Behaviour Across India”. At the time of writing of this paper, eleven editions have been released by BARC-Nielsen. The ratings duo has standardized the average data for Weeks 2 to 4 of 2020 as a measure for television consumption trends. The author has also used the same yardstick to analyze television consumption trends of the Top channels based on BARC weekly data published each week in the public domain of the top 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 10 Television channels of each genre, sub-genre, language and/or platform in all-India or the respective market, The analysis of this paper is limited to that extent. Where required, data from the 11 editions released by BARC-Nielsen has been used. Though the percentages of share of consumption may differ from the numbers in the BARC-Nielsen reports and those arrived at by the author based on limited BARC data available in the public domain, BARCs’ historical conclusions generally conform with them. Please refer to the figure below for TV+OOH viewership data as per BARC Weekly data.

    Viewership share of GECs’ has been growing post Week 22 of 2020 per the latest BARC-Nielsen report which included data for Week 33 of 2020. Week 22 of 2020 was when a number of genres started creating fresh content after UNLOCK 1.0 commenced. Viewership share of GECs’ was 52 percent of overall television in Week 33 of 2020 which is at par with the Pre-COVID2019 average (average of Weeks 2 to 4 of 2020). In Week 12 of 2020, it had plunged to an all-time low of 39 percent. The 11th edition of the BARC-Nielsen report that included data for Week 33 of 2020 revealed that the overall television viewership of 17.6 billion impressions was still 22 percent higher than the pre-COVID2019 viewership. The breakup of growth in viewership between the HSM and South in Week 33 of 2020 was 24 percent and 17 percent respectively.

    Analysis of BARC data of the top 3, 4, 5 or 10 channels of different genres of GECs’ reveals that despite viewership of the top 56 unique GEC channels from multiple genres declining 0.7 percent in Week 34 of 2020 as compared to 54  unique GEC channels from multiple genres in Week 34, the ratings of top 16 Hindi GECs’ was flat (increased 0.1 percent) as compared to the previous week. The drop in viewership was mainly in the regional languages including South Indian languages GECs’.

    Similarly, in the case of News channels, though ratings of 50 plus unique news channels in different language declined by more than 5 percent in Week 34 of 2020 as compared to Week 33, ratings of the Top 5 Hindi News channels during the same period increased by 4.2 percent as compared to 6 unique channels in Week 33 of 2020.  Hence, it is the Hindi channels that have reduced the impact of the fall in overall viewership ratings in Week 34 of 2020 from the ratings of Week 33 of 2020.

    The figure below shows viewership share of various genres. It must be noted that the number of unique channels in both weeks is not the same (184 in Week 33 and 183 in Week 34 of 2020), and hence the number of unique channels across genres/sub-genres/languages/platform in the chart below are not the same in some cases. The author has created a rough measure by using data for unique channels that figure in BARCs’ weekly lists of Top 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10 channels for the two weeks.

    Top 10 Channels on All PlatformsAcross Genres

    Star India’s Hindi GEC Star Utsav continued heading BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres in Week 34 of 2020 for the third week in a row. As a matter of fact, 9 of the 10 channels in BARC’s Weekly list for Week 34 of 2020 were the same and had almost the same ranks as in the previous week. The only small reshuffling in ranks was the exchange of ranks between Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) Hindi GEC Zee Anmol and Star India’s flagship Hindi GEC Star Plus. The latter moved up one place while the formed dropped one place to rank4. The other change was that Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV at rank 10 in Week 33 of 2020 exited the list during the period under review and was replaced by the Network18 (Viacom18) associated Telugu channel ETV Telugu.

    Six Hindi GECs’, three Telugu channels and one Tamil channel made up BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres in Week 30 of 2020. There were 3 Star India channels, two channels each from Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and Zeel and one channel each from Enterr 10 Television, Sun TV Network (Sun TV) and Network18/Viacom18 in the list for Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres in Week 34 of 2020.

    Please refer to the chart below:

    Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres

    Sun TV continued to lead BARC Weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres during the period under review. Nine of the 10 channels in BARC’s weekly list for Week 34 of 2020 were the same as in the previous week, but with some shuffling of ranks. Gemini TV, The Sun TV Network’s flagship Telugu GEC, exited the list and was replaced by Zeel’s flagship Kannada GEC Zee Kannada.

    There were four channels from the Hindi GEC genre, three channels from the Telugu genre two channels from the Tamil genre and one channel Kannada genre in BARC weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres in Week 34 of 2020. There were three channels from Zeel, two channels each from Star India, Sun Tv Network and Network18/Viacom18 and one channel from SPN in BARC’s weekly top paychannels list for Week 34 of 2020. Please refer to the chart below.

    Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres

    Star Utsav headed BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in Week 34 of 2020. All of the 10 channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in Week 30 of 2020 were the same as in Week 29 with some shuffling of ranks

    There were three channels from Zeel, two channels from Viacom18 and one channel each from B4U Network, Enterr 10 Television, Goldmine Telefilms, SPN and Star India in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in Week 30 of 2020. There six Hindi GECs’ and four Hindi Movies channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in Week 29 of 2020. Please refer to the figure below:


     

  • Hindi and South Indian GECs drive television viewership up; Sun TV back on Top across genres

    Hindi and South Indian GECs drive television viewership up; Sun TV back on Top across genres

    BENGALURU: Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) reported 1.73 percent growth in overall television impressions in week 30 of 2020 (Saturday, 25 July 2020 to Friday, 31 July 2020, week or period under review) to 17.6 billion weekly impressions from 17.3 billion weekly impressions in the previous week. This number is still 21.4 percent higher than the viewership of 14.5 billion impressions reported for week 4 of 2020.

    BARC and Nielsen had set the average viewership data between weeks two and four of 2020 as the yardstick to measure television consumption trends during COVID-19 weeks. The author has considered week 4 of 2020 as the reference week here.

    Viewership has been driven mainly by GECs after the series of UNLOCKs’ announced by the government and airing of new content created post UNLOCK.  In week 30 of 2019, the growth drivers have been mainly South Indian channels and Hindi GECs. The analysis in this paper is limited to BARC data available in the public domain – the top 2,3,4,5 or 10 channels of the genre/sub-genre/language/platform/market. The unit of data released by BARC is impressions in thousands (000s). The channels in BARC’s weekly lists may vary week-on-week depending upon the viewership numbers in terms of weekly impressions each channel attracts.Conclusions by the author have been derived from this limited BARC data.

    BARC data in the public domain for week 30 of 2020 reveals that the combined weekly impressions of the top 10 Hindi GECs on all platforms in the Hindi speaking urban and rural markets, HSM (U+R) increased 3.9 percent as compared to the previous week. Viewership of the top 5 channels of the four South Indian languages – Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu also increased 7.1percent, 2.1 percent, 13.5 percent and 1.3 percent respectively. BARC considers the Hindi speaking market as all India minus the markets where the four South Indian languages are predominantly used – these are Karnataka (Kannada), Malayalam (Kerala), Tamil (Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and Telugu (Andhra Pradesh or AP and Telangana). By itself, the South Indian market is a huge market in terms of television penetration, and among the four, Tamil and Telugu markets are big in terms of population and TV homes.  After the various Hindi genres, BARC provided the most segmented but limited data for the four South Indian languages in the public domain. BARC provides data for the Top 5 News channels in Hindi, the four South Indian languages and English in the public domain.

    The other regional languages for which BARC releases limited data in the public domain are Assamese, Bangla, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Marathi, Oriya and Panjabi. BARC provides data for the top channels in each of these languages – these could be GECs or News or Movies, as also separate data for the Top 5 News channels in Assamese, Bangla, Oriya and Marathi. week 30 of 2020 saw viewership of Top 5 channels of Assamese, Bangla, Gujarati and Marathi grow 9.4 percent, 4.1 percent, 2.2 percent and 6.2 percent respectively. Combined viewership of the Top 5 Bhojpuri, Oriya and Panjabi channels in week 30 of 2020 fell 4.9 percent, 0.03 percent and 4.9 percent respectively as compared to the previous week.

    According to BARC data, GECs, movies, news and kids genres in that order garner around 90 percent of overall television viewership. GEC is the largest genre with about 45 percent of overall television viewership, with movies garnering between 23 to 27 percent of the viewership and the Kids genre about 7-8 percent. Post Covid2019, UNLOCK, the News genres has been garnering around 15 percent of television viewership. 

    Viewership of the Top 5 Hindi movie channels in HSM (U+R) on all platforms increased by 0.1 percent in week 30 of 2020 as compared to week 29.  The Top 5 kids channels saw combined weekly impressions grow 2.6 percent during the week under review as compared to week 29 of 2020.

    The Top 5 Hindi news channels in HSM (U+R) and the Top 5 English Nnews channels saw weekly impressions increase 3.7 percent and 12.4 percent respectively. The English news genre is a small sub-genre in terms of viewership. 

    Combined viewership of the Top 5 Assamese, Bangla, Marathi and Oriya news channels declined 9.9 percent, 4.3 percent, 6.6 percent and 0.03 percent respectively as compared to week 29. The Top 5 Kannada, Malayalam and Telugu news channels witnessed viewership dips of 18.4 percent, 2.5 percent and 3.9 percent respectively, while the Top 5 Tamil news channels saw weekly impressions increase of 7.2 percent in week 30 of 2020 as compared to week 29. 

    Hence overall viewership in terms of weekly impressions was driven mainly by Hindi GECs and channels in the four South Indian languages, with some help from the other three major television genres.

    Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres

    The Sun Tv Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV regained top spot as the most watched channel on all platforms across genres after a hiatus. All the 10 channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres in week 30 of 2020 were the same as in the previous week, with some shuffling of ranks.

    Seven Hindi GECs, two Telugu channels and one Tamil channel made up BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres in week 30 of 2020. There were 3 Star India channels, two channels each from Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) and one channel each from Enterr 10 Television, Sun TV Network (Sun TV) and Viacom18 in the list for Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres in week 30 of 2020.

    Please refer to the table below:

    Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres

    Nine of the channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres in week 30 of 2020 were the same as in week 29. One Star India Hindi movies channel at rank 10 – Star Gold exited the list in week 30 to be replaced by another Star India channel – Tamil GEC Star Vijay at the same rank (rank 10).

    There were three channels each from the Hindi GEC and Telugu genres, two channels from the Tamil genre and one channel each from the Kids and the Hindi movies genres in BARC weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres in week 30 of 2020. There were three channels each from Star India and Viacom18 (or associated with Viacom18 through its parent Network 18), two channels from SPN and one channel each from Sun TV and Zeel.

    Please refer to the table below:

    Top 10 FreeChannels Across Genres
    Nine of the 10 channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in week 30 of 2020 were the same as in week 29. One channel – Enterr10 Television’s Bhojpuri channel, Bhojpuri Cinema, exited the list in week 30 of 2020 to be replaced by Zeel’s Bhojpuri channel Zee Biskope.

    There were four channels from Zeel, two channels from Viacom18 and one channel each from B4U Network, Enterr 10 Television, SPN and Star India in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in week 30 of 2020. There six Hindi GECs, three Hindi Movies channels and one Bhojpuri channel in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in week 29 of 2020.

    Please refer to the table below:


     

  • Zee Anmol claws to top place in Free Across Genres channels in week 29

    Zee Anmol claws to top place in Free Across Genres channels in week 29

    BENGALURU: Television viewership dipped slightly in week 29 of 2020 (Saturday, 18 July 2020 to Friday, 24 July 2020, week or period under review) according to Broadcast Audience Research Council Research on India (BARC) weekly data as compared to the previous week. BARC reported 17.3 billion impressions as Television viewership for week 29 of 2020 as compared to 17.4 billion weekly impressions during the immediate trailing week – week 28. BARC releases weekly data for the top two, three, four, five or 10 channels of a language, genre or sub-genre in the public domain. Besides, BARC also releases data for the Top 10 channels on all platforms across genres on all platform, on the pay platform and on the free platform. Similar data is also split up for the top Hindi GECs on these platforms along with further segmentation of the combined urban and rural Hindi speaking market or HSM (U+R), in HSM (U) and HSM (R). For regional and other genres such as news, languages, BARC publishes data for the top 5 or lesser channels.

    The analysis in this paper is limited to BARC data available in the public domain – the top two, three, four, five or 10 channels of the genre/sub-genre/language/platform/market.

    Despite the small dip in television ratings, GECs viewership in general seems to have continued climbing, while the News genre seems to have continued the trend of reduction in eyeballs. BARCs’ data for week 29 for the Top five channels in Assamese, Bangla, Bhojpuri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu channels shows that their combined ratings increased as compared to week 28. Only the combined weekly ratings of the top five Gujarati and Kannada channels fell as compared to the previous week. It must be noted that some of the channels in the above genres are movie channels, news channels, etc. However, BARC does publish data in the public domain of the Top five News channels in Hindi, English, Assamese, Bangla, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Telugu and Tamil languages. The combined weekly impressions of the top 5 News channels in all these languages declined except for Bangla and Oriya News channels, which increased by 1.8 percent and 2.2 percent respectively in week 29 of 2020 as compared to week 28. The combined weekly impressions of the other two major genres – Movies (almost flat growth – increased by 0.5 percent) and Kids (declined by 4.2 percent) in week 29 of 2020 did see some changes, but not enough to make a major impact to overall weekly television viewership. These four genres – GEC, Movies, News and Kids generally constitute 90 percent of the overall television ratings according to BARC reports.

    Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres

    Since its return to DD Free Dish, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd’s second Hindi GEC Zee Anmol has seen viewership climb. The channel was ranked fourth in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels om All Platforms Across Genres in week 29 of 2020. Long time numero uno on this list – Enterr 10 Television’s Dangal had lost its peak position when many of the Hindi GECs returned to DD Free Dish a few weeks ago. Dangal was now ranked 5 in week 29 of 2020. 

    Seven Hindi GECs, two Telugu channels and one channel made up BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres in week 29 of 2020. There were 3 Star India channels, two channels each from Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and one channel each from Enterr 10 Television, Sun TV Network (Sun TV) and Viacom18 in the list for Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres in week 29 of 2020.

    Please refer to the chart below:

    Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres

    Two channels -ranked ninth and tenth in the previous week (week 28 of 2020) exited BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres in week 29 of 2020 to be replaced by Viacom18’s flagship Hindi GEC Colors and Star India’s Hindi Movies channel Star Gold. The other 8 channels in BARC’s weekly list in week 29 of 2020 were the same in the previous week, with a slight juggling of ranks. There were three channels each from the Hindi GEC and Telugu genres, two channels from the Hindi Movies and one channel each from the Kids and the Tamil genres in BARC weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres in week 29 of 2020. There were three channels each from Star India and Viacom18 (or associated with Viacom18 through its parent Network 18), two channels each from SPN and Zeel and one channel from Sun Tv.

    Please refer to the figure below:

    Top 10 FreeChannels Across Genres

    Zee Anmol clawed its way to the top spot in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in week 29 of 2020. All the channels in the weekly list for week 29 of 2020 were the same as in week 28 with some shuffling of ranks. There were 3 channels each from Viacom18 and Zeel, two channels from Enterr10 Television and one channel each from B4U Network and Star India in BARC’sweekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in week 29 of 2020. There six Hindi GECs, three Hindi movies channels and one Bhojpuri channel in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in week 29 of 2020.

    Please refer to the chart below:


     

  • Larger networks takeover free Across Genres list as Star Utsav tops All Platforms

    Larger networks takeover free Across Genres list as Star Utsav tops All Platforms

    BENGALURU: Among the bigger networks that have channels feature in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly lists of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms, on the Pay and Free Platforms are DD, Network18/TV18/Viacom18 (or simply Viacom18) Star India, Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN), The Sun TV Network (Sun Network), and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel).  Many of the channels from these networks, as well as other networks were now available on Pay and Free Platforms, on the latter mainly because of their presence on Prasar Bharati’s free DTH service DD Free Dish.

    Until recently, channels from these bigger networks found places mostly in BARC’s weekly lists of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms and on the Pay Platform. And until the advent of the Covid2019 Lockdown, there were generally one to four channels from two major networks/groups that were present in BARC’s weekly lists of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres. These two are pubcaster Doordarshan and channels from or associated with the Essel group’s Zeel. Initially, DD was represented by only one of its channels, DD Sports, and that too for only the first three weeks of 2020. Zeel was represented by four of its channels in BARC’s weekly lists of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres lists– Big Magic (Hindi GEC), Big Ganga (Bhojpuri GEC), Zee Biskope (Bhojpuri Cinema) and Zing (Youth). Only Big Magic was present during all the first 12 weeks of BARC’s Free Across Genres weekly lists. As a matter of fact, Big Magic was present during all the first 26 weeks of these BARC weekly lists of the Top Free Channels Across. Besides Big Magic, normally there were at least two other Zeel channels and sometimes even three that were present in the weekly Free Channels Across Genres lists during the first 12 weeks of 2020. But, at the same time, least six of the channels were from the smaller networks such as Enterr 10 Television and B4U Network. Enterr 10 had three to four of its channels in each of the first 12 weekly Free Platform lists, while B4U had two or three of its channels in the lists during the same period. Enterr 10’s channels included Bhojpuri Cinema, Dangal, Fakt Marathi and Enterr 10, while B4U’s channels were B4U Bhojpuri, B4U Kadak and B4U Movies.

    Week 13 of 2020, the first week of the Covid2019 Lockdown had four channels– one channel from DD and three channels from Zeel, with five channels from Enterr 10 (three channels) and B4U (two channels). The India Today group’s flagship Hindi News channel Aaj Tak entered BARC’s Across Genres weekly lists for the first time, in two Across Genres lists – Across Genres on All Platforms and Across Genres Free Platform.  In the absence of fresh programming, DD National started airing some of its library shows that had been very popular in the previous century, in Week 12 of 2020. These included Ramanad Sagar’s Ramayan and B R Chopra’s Mahabharat along with a number of other classics from its library. In Week 13, DD National became the most watched channel across genres on All Platforms and the Pay Platform and was also present in the Free Platform Across Genres list. DD National continued in the top 10 Across Genres lists until Week 18 2020. Week 14 saw DD Bharti enter BARC’s weekly list of Top Free Channels Across genres. The split was now five channels each between the bigger and other networks. And this split continued on till Week 22 of 2020. Weeks’ 23, 24, 25 and 26 of 2020 saw ratio of Bigger Networks: Other Networks at 7:3, 7:3, 8:2 and 7:3 respectively. Data for Week 26 of 2020 (Saturday, 27 June 2020 to Friday, 3 July 2020) is available at the time of writing of this paper. In Week 14 of 2020, the bigger networks were the same as in previous weeks – DD with two channels and Zeel with three channels. Similarly, the other networks mix was the same – Enterr 10 Television had three channels in the list while B4U Network had two channels. DD Bharti exited the Top 10 Free Across Genres list in Week 20, and DD National exited it in Week 24. For Weeks 20 and 21, there were 4 Zeel channels in the list, three channels from Enterr 10, 2 from B4U and one from DD. 

    In Week 23, two channels, one each from SPN and Star India and two Vaicom18 channels replaced two Zeel channels and one channel each from B4U Network and Enterr 10 Television in the list. Post Week 22 of 2020, channels from these major networks have continued their presence in BARC’s Weekly list of Top Free Channels Across Genres lists at the cost of B4U Networks and Enterr 10 Television. The bigger networks have taken over BARC’s weekly lists of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres. 

    Television consumption in terms of minutes, average time spent and reach has been declining from the highs of the lockdown weeks. Getting their second rung Hindi GEC and Movies channels on DD’s free DTH platform Free Dish is probably the best thing that the four major networks SPN, Star India, Viacom18 and Zeel could have done from viewership growth point of view is concerned. Analysis of BARC data in the public domain shows that 51.6 percent of Star Utsav’s viewership was on the Free Platform. In The case of Zee Anmol, Rishtey Cineplex and Sony Pay, viewership on the Free Platform was even higher. Channels such as Dangal which has seen viewership decline with the advent of Hindi GECs’ from the major networks in recent weeks had almost 70 percent of its viewership on the free platform in Week 26 of 2020.

    Besides, as stated above, GEC share of viewership has increased from the lows of the Covid2019 lockdown period. Please refer to the chart below:

    Hindi GECs have seen viewership growth on the Free Platform and in Rural Markets

    As mentioned above, these channels have re-joined Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) Top 10 channels weekly lists on All Platforms and on the Pay and Free Platforms or have jumped up ranks in in general in their respective genres in the Hindi Speaking Market (HSM), be it the combined urban and rural – HSM (U+R) or HSM (U) or HSM (R) over the past few weeks. After a slow and steady decline that started in Week 15 and continued in Weeks 17 to 22 of 2020 as compared to the immediate trailing week. Combined weekly impressions of the Top 10 Hindi GEC’s on All Platforms in HSM (U+R) have now grown week on week. Weeks 23, 24, 25 and 26 of 2020 saw viewership of the Top 10 Hindi GECs’ in HSM (U+R) grow by 4.9, 6.9, 4.4 and 2.5 percent respectively. 

    The BARC-Nielsen yardstick is the average data between Weeks 2 to 4 of 2020. Using this reference point, the combined weekly impressions of Top 10 Hindi GECs’ in HSM (U+R) have been consistently increasing starting Week 13 of 2020, except for a small fall of 0.3 percent in Week 22. Until Week 26 of 2020, consumption of the Top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) in terms of weekly impressions has increased by 18.7 percent as compared to the Weeks two to four average and by 14 percent as compared to Week 1 of 2020. This growth has been led by the Free Hindi GECs and by the rural market or HSM (R) according to BARC data for the Top 10 Hindi GECs on the Free and Pay Platforms and in HSM (U+R), HSM (U) and HSM (R). 
    Exact comparison has not been done based BARC data because until Week 15 of 2020, BARC only listed the Top 9 Channels in HSM (R) and for the Free Platform in the public domain. But, considering the viewership growth of the Top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) of 18.7 percent in Week 26 of 2020, viewership of Top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U) has increased by just 1.8 percent with respect to the average of Weeks 2- 4 of 2020. In the same period viewership of Top 10 Hindi GECs on the Pay Platform has declined by 2.1 percent, as compared to the average of the Top 10 channels in Weeks 2 to 4 of 2020.

    The increase in viewership of GECs is also evident from the figure below based on BARC-Nielsen data for the top four most watched genres below. As is obvious the share of GEC viewership has started increasing and has come up to 48 percent in Week 26 of 2020 from the lows (40 percent) of the Covid2019 weeks, but has still to touch or exceed the pre-Covid2019 period’s 52 percent.

    Some other trends in Top 10 Channels Across Genres lists in Week 26 of 2020

    26 channels have appeared in BARC’s weekly lists of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres lists during the first 26 weeks of 2020. Of these 26, only three channels – Dangal, Sony Sab and Sun TV have appeared consistently in the lists during all the 26 weeks. Among the frontline channels – Star Plus was present in the list for 21 weeks, followed by its Telugu Sibling Star Maa, which was present for 20 of 26 weeks in the lists. Weeks 25 and 26 of BARC’s weekly lists of Top 10 Channels Across Genres saw Star India’s Hindi GEC Star Utsav at rank no 1.

    20 channels appeared in BARC’s weekly lists of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres lists during the first 26 weeks of 2020. Here also only three channels appeared in the lists for all the 26 weeks – they were Sony SAB, Star Maa and Sun TV. Sun TV has been consistently ranked 1 during all the 26 weeks to date in this list.

    22 channels appeared in BARC’s weekly lists of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres lists during the first 26 weeks of 2020. Here also only three channels appeared in the lists for all the 26 weeks – they were Dangal, Big Magic and B4U Kadak. Dangal has been consistently ranked 1 during all the 26 weeks to date in this list. Please refer to the figure below:


     

  • India Today Group to host e-Sahitya AajTak from 22-24 May

    India Today Group to host e-Sahitya AajTak from 22-24 May

    MUMBAI: Riding on the overwhelming response received by the recent digital versions of ‘Agenda AajTak’, the channel is now back with its specially curated e-version of ‘Sahitya AajTak’ from 22 -24  May . The flagship literature festival of the India Today Group will showcase unique conversations with prominent celebrities, singers, lyricists, writers, columnists and other distinguished personalities with rich insights on real life anecdotes and challenges arising out of the Corona virus crisis. e-Sahitya AajTak is a successful reinvention of an otherwise on-ground event not possible currently due to the nationwide lockdown. e-Sahitya AajTak will have over 28 speakers and 25 power-packed sessions over three days. 

    The e-literature fest promises to bring together a confluence of the greatest names in literature and the performing arts to express their views openly and engage in a meaningful dialogue. The big attractions of the three day event are Anup Jalota, Javed Akhtar, Hans Raj Hans, Surendra Sharma, Prasoon Joshi, Amish Tripathi, Ashok Vajpeyi, Swanand Kirkire, Chitra Mudgal, Manoj Muntashir, Javed Ali, Ashok Chakradhar, Asghar Wajahat, Piyush Mishra, Maithili Thakur, Chetan Bhagat, Neeraj Pandey, Manoj Tiwari, Dinesh Lal Yadav (Nirahua), B Praak, Saloni Gaur, Cheshta Saxena along with the celebrated star cast from Ramayana and Mahabharata.

     AajTak recently hosted several editions of Indian heartland’s biggest thought leadership summit ‘Agenda AajTak’ in the forms of ‘e-Agenda AajTak’. The summits were power packed events with a plethora of leaders on one common platform, deliberating on the present issues faced by the world’s largest democracy.

    Innovations, like being the first Indian News channel to use drone camera for active news coverage, interviews on teleportation, implementation of the latest technologies in news delivery, besides a slew of new programming initiatives, exclusive interviews and Industry first events have kept the channel in pole position. India’s most watched and No.1 news channel AajTak for last 20 years (Source – BARC/TAM, 15+, HSM, in terms of Market Share) has also been the No.1 TV Channel during Coronatimes with 36 Crore viewers (Source: BARC, Absolute Cumm Reach, 2+, All India, Week 12-19'20).
     

  • DD National, Sun TV & Zee Biskope see viewership growth across genres

    DD National, Sun TV & Zee Biskope see viewership growth across genres

    BENGALURU: Week 13 of 2020 was a peak week in terms of television viewership which had climbed to an all-time high. Viewership fell in week 14 of 2020, but seems to have recovered a bit in week 15 of 2020 (Saturday, 11 April 2020 to Friday, 17 April 2020, week under review). Towards the mid-end of Week 12 of 2020 was when the Indian COVID-19 lockdown happened (25 March 2020), but events such as the Janta curfew happened at the start of week 12. Hence, week 12 can be considered the first week of the Indian COVID-19 lockdown. Television viewing habits and viewership have changed completely during the lockdown period in the country.

    Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) data for week 15 of 2020 reveals that only one of the nine channels that were present in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels Across Genres on All Platforms, on pay platform and free platform in weeks 13, 14 and 15 of 2020 have seen viewership growth in week on week (w-o-w) to week 15 as compared to the peak week. Pubcaster network Doordarshan’s (DD) flagship channel DD National saw viewership grow 21.4 per cent in week 14 of 2020 as compared to week 13 and saw it grow further in week 15 by 38.2 per cent vis-à-vis week 14 in BARC’s weekly across genres lists on all platforms. The most widely available terrestrial channel in the country saw viewership grow 68 per cent in week 15 as compared to week 13 in BARC’s weekly across genres lists on all platforms. The rerun of the mythology shows Ramayan and Mahabharat and a number of classics from the 80’s and 90’s of the previous century have helped two channels of DD grow viewership tremendously.

    Top 10 channels across genres on all platforms

    Nine channels have appeared in BARC’s weekly across genres lists on all platforms during all the three weeks under consideration here. The only exception was the Sun Network’s Tamil movies channel KTV, which exited in BARC’s weekly across genres lists on all platforms in week 14 of 2020, to be replaced by Viacom18’s Kids channel Nick.

    Sun TV Network’s flagship Tamil channel Sun TV saw viewership decline in week 14 by19.4 per cent as compared to week 13 of 2020, but then climb again strongly in week 15 by 48 per cent as compared to week 13.

    Two channels, each from DD, Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) and one channel each from Enterr 10 Television, Star India, Sun Tv Network and Viacom18, were present in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels Across Genres on All Platforms in week 25 of 2020.  Five of the channels were Hindi GECs; there were two Hindi movie channels and there was one channel each from the kids, Tamil and Telugu genres present in the list in week 15 of 2020.

    Please refer to the chart below

    Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres

    In BARC’s weekly lists of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres for weeks 13, 14 and 15 of 2020, DD National was the only channel that saw w-o-w growth in weeks 14 and 15 as compared to week 13 of 2020.

    Nine of the channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres have been the same in weeks 13, 14 and 15 of 2020 with a shuffling of ranks. The only change was when KTV exited the list in week 15 of 2020 to be replaced by its network’s sibling Telugu GEC Gemini TV. 

    Three channels each from the Hindi movies and Telugu genres, two channels from the Hindi GEC genre and one channel each from the kids and Tamil
    genre made up BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres in week 15 of 2020. Two channels each from SPN, Star, Sun and Viacom 18 (one from Viacom18 and one from Eenadu TV group in which Viacom18’s majority owner Network18 has a stake) and one channel each from DD and Zee were present in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres.

    Please refer to the charts below:

    Top 10 Free-to-Air Channels Across Genres

    In the case of BARC’s weekly lists of Top 10 Free-to-Air Channels Across Genres, it was again DD National that maintained its w-o-w growth in weeks 14 and 15 as compared to week 13 of 2020. Further, Zeel’sBhohpuri cinema channel Zee Biskope also showed growth during week 15 vis-à-vis week 13, but it had seen a viewership drop in week 14 as compared to week 13 of 2020.

    Four Hindi GECs’, three channels from the Hindi Movies, two channels from the Bhojpuri genre and one channel from the Youth genre comprised BARC’s weekly list  of Top 10 Free-to-Air Channels Across Genres in week 15 of 2020. There were three channels each from Enterr 10 Television and Zeel and two channels each from B4U and DD networks in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free-to-Air Channels Across Genres during the week under review. 

    Here also, nine of the channels were present during the three weeks under consideration in this paper, but again with some shuffling of ranks. The India Today group’s Hindi News channel AajTakexited the list in week 14 to be replaced by DD’s Hindi GEC DD Bharati.

    Please refer to the charts below:


     

  • ‘Ramayan’, movies drive out pay Hindi GECs, news from across genres list

    ‘Ramayan’, movies drive out pay Hindi GECs, news from across genres list

    BENGALURU: Weeks 12 of 2020 (Saturday, 21 March 2020 to Friday 27 March 2020) and 13 of 2020 (Saturday, 28 March 2020 to Friday, 3 April 2020) witnessed big changes in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly lists of Top 10 Channels Across Genres on All Platforms. Week 12, the first week of the All India 21-day lockdown due to the dreaded covidvirus-19 had seen the entry of a Hindi News channel, the free to air (FTA) AajTak from the India Today group at rank 7. Only three GEC channels, two of which were FTA –Dangal (at rank 1), Big Magic (at rank 8) and Pay channel Sony Sab (at rank 3), were present in BARCs’ across genres on all platforms list in week 12 of 2020. Three Movies channels were also present in the list in week 12 along with two Telugu and one channel each of Tamil and Hindi News genres. Combined viewership of the Top 10 channels across genres in week 12 of 2020 was 8 percent higher than the combined viewership in week 11. From the Network’s perspective there were two channels each from Sony Pictures Network India (SPN), Star India and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) and one channel each from Enterr10 Television, Sun TV, TV Today group and Viacom18. 

    Week 13 of 2020 saw combined viewership of Top 10 channels across genres on all Platform climb even further- week 13 of 2020 saw week on week combined weekly impressions grow 18.3 percent as compared to the previous week. Eight of the channels in the weekly list for week 13 were the same as in week 12, but with higher ratings and a shuffling of ranks. Star India’s flagship Telugu GEC Star Maa and AajTak exited the list in week 13 to make way for DD National (at rank 1) and Viacom18’s Kids channel Nick (at rank 9). BARC attributes DD National’s growth of viewership to re-runs of programmes such as Ramayan, Shaktiman and Buniyaad amongst others.

    Four Hindi GECs, three channels from the Hindi Movies genre and one channel each from the Kids, Tamil and Telugu genres made up BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels Across Genres on All Platforms. Please refer to the figure below:

    Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres

    BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres in week 12 of 2020 had seen the exit of five big GECs’, four of which were Hindi GEC’s and one was a Kannada GEC. All the channels were flagship channels. The Hindi GECs’ were Viacom18’s Colors, SPN’s Sony Entertainment Television, Star India’s Star Plus and Zeel’s Zee TV and the Kannada GEC was Zeel’s Zee Kannada. Three of the channels that replaced these GECs’ were Hindi Movies channels and two were Telugu GEC channels. BARC revealed during a teleconference that many GECs’ have included classic soaps& dramas and movies as big part of their programming, more so in South India. Four Telugu channels, three Hindi Movies channels and one channel each from the Hindi GEC, Kids and Tamil genres made up BARC weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across genres in week 12 of 2020. There were two channels each from SPN, Star India, Sun Tv Network, Viacom18 and Zeel. 

    Week 13 of 2020 saw two channels exit BARCs’ weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres-the Sun Tv Network’s Telugu GEC Gemini and Zeel’s Zee Telugu. The new entrants were pubcasterDoordarshan’s (DD) flagship channel DD National and the Sun Tv Network’s Tamil Movies channel KTV. Hence there were three channels from the Hindi Movies genre, two channels each from Hindi GECs’, Tamil and Telugu and one channel from the Kids genre. From the network’s perspective, there were two channels each from SPN, Star India, Sun Tv Nework, Viacom18 and one channel each from DD and Zeel.

    Please refer to figure below.

    Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres

    BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in week 12 of 2020 saw the exit of one Hindi Movies channel -ABZY Movies, to be replaced by Hindi News channel AajTak. The other nine channels in week 12 were same as in the previous week, with some shuffling in ranks.  There were three channels each from the Bhojpuri and Hindi Movies genres, two channels from the Hindi GEC genre and one channel each from the Hindi News and Youth genres. There were four channels from Zeel, three channels from Enterr10 Television, two channels from B4U Network and one channel from the India Today group.

    Nine of the channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in week 13 of 2020 were the same as in week 12. The channel that exited the list was Zeel’s Bhojpuri channel Big Ganga, which was replaced by DD’s DD National. The nine channels from the previous week had some reshuffling of ranks. There were three channels each from the Hindi GEC and Hindi Movies genres, two channels from the Bhojpuri genre and one channel each from the Hindi News and the Youth genres. There were three channels each from Enterr10 Television and Zeel, two channels from B4U and one channel each from DD and the India Today group.

    Please refer to the figure below:

  • News channels encash ‘taali bajao, thaali bajao’ initiative to gain more traction

    News channels encash ‘taali bajao, thaali bajao’ initiative to gain more traction

    MUMBAI: News channels across genre certainly tried to chance upon the opportunity to engage viewers during the ‘taali bajao, thaali bajao’ event. An initiative called by prime minister Narendra Modi as a tribute to the heroes, who are the vanguard of fighting against coronavirus.

    On 19 March, PM Modi urged citizens to voluntarily participate in the ‘Janta curfew’ from 7 am to 9 pm on 22 March to stop the spread of novel coronavirus. He also urged people to send a tribute to the doctors, nurses, and police, among others, on the same day at 5 pm by either clapping, banging utensils or ringing a bell from the balcony or at the doorstep.

    In this regard, news channels across genres, apart from broadcasting the people’s participation in the ‘taali bajao, thaali bajao’ initiative from various corners of India, also tried to engage with them proactively on social media as well as on live news channels of the network.

    TV Today Network’s news channels, both English and Hindi, urged viewers to make a video while participating in the ‘taali bajao, thaali bajao’ initiative with a hashtag #5baje5minute and send to the network which will be shown on their channels.

    According to India Today, the group had asked citizens to send videos of what they did to express gratitude for thousands of those fighting against Coronavirus across the country. Selected videos were broadcast on both India Today and AajTak.

    “The campaign — #5baje5minute – become a massive hit as the network received one lakh videos on the WhatsApp numbers shared while announcing the campaign. Meanwhile, the hashtag has also witnessed over 1.87 lakh tweets with a reach to at least 26 million people,” said a channel spokesperson.

    Times Network’s president – strategy and business head – English entertainment cluster, Vivek Srivastava says: “The network also ably supported PM’s fervent appeal for a ‘Janta Curfew’ call on 22 March, 2020 by running a pledge campaign on news brands to mobilise awareness and participation from the viewers by sending in their video messages supporting the initiative.”

    “India TV has also run two successful social media campaigns so far, the first one was to ask people to support ‘Janta Curfew’, a call by PM Narendra Modi and the second one was to answer common queries of the people getting anxious due to a huge influx of information, attempting to debunk the myths surrounding the issue”, says India TV marketing manager Aruna Jamwal.

    Meanwhile, all other network channels such as ABP News Network, New Delhi Television, Zee News, Republic Media Network and Network18, among others, opted for traditional methods to grab eyeballs during the ‘taali bajao, thaali bajao’ initiative. The difference all these channels had were the visuals of people participating in the initiative shown on the TV screen.

    At least half a dozen reporters of respective news channels were stationed at various prominent locations to speak to the people supporting PM Modi’s call. The channels also showed the visuals of politicians, ministers and Bollywood actors participating in an initiative called by PM Modi.

  • BARC week 39: Not much impact of UNGA on Hindi news viewership

    BARC week 39: Not much impact of UNGA on Hindi news viewership

    BENGALURU: Pakistan Premier Imran Khan’s shenanigan’s at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) did not seem to have much effect on the viewership of Hindi news channels in week 39 of 2019 as combined weekly impressions of the BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi news channels grew by just 7 percent as compared to the previous week. Hindi news viewership in Hindi speaking markets – both urban -HSM (U) and rural (HSM (R), as well as the combined markets -HSM (U+R) seemed immune to Islamophobia and Islamic Terror that many global leaders spouted during their respective UNGA speeches as BARC data for the top 5 Hindi news channels in HSM (U+R) increased to 545.803 million weekly impressions in week 39 of 2019 from 511.897 million weekly impressions in week 38. Viewership growth in week 39 of 2019 was driven by HSM (U), while Aaj Tak and Zee News were the biggest gainers in both HSM (U) and HSM (R), as well as HSM (U+R)

    Comparatively, viewership of the top 5 English News channels increased by as much as 41 percent during the week under review as compared to the previous week. 

    Hindi news viewership in HSM (U+R)

    While the channels listed among the top 5 Hindi news channels in HSM (U+R) were the same, there was a small shufflingof ranks in week 39 of 2019 (Saturday, 21 September 2019 to Friday, 27 September 2019, week or period under consideration). Aaj Tak retained its numero uno rank that it has held on to almost forever with 17 percent increase in viewership in week 39 of 2019 at 127.463 million weekly impressions as compared to 114.016 million weekly impressions in week 38.

    Zee News climbed up a place to second rank with an increase of 11 percent in week 39 of 2019 to 112.261 million weekly impressions as compared to third rank and 100.993 million weekly impressions in the previous week. India TV dropped a place to third rank despite an increase of 3 percent viewership to 104.248 million weekly impressions in week 39 of 2019 as compared to second rank and 101.656 million weekly impressions in week 38. News18 India retained fourth rank in the week under review with an increase of 3 percent in ratings to 103.011 million weekly impressions as compared to 99.971 million weekly impressions in week 38. ABP News also retained fifth rank in week 39 of 2019 with an increase of 4 percent in viewership to 98.820 million weekly impressions as compared to 95.261 million weekly impressions in week 38.

    Please refer to the figure below:

    Hindi news Viewership in HSM (U)

    Viewership of the top 5 Hindi news channels in HSM (U) increased 8 percent to 319.149 million weekly impressions in week 39 of 2019 from 294.229 million weekly impressions in week 38. Please refer to the figure below.

    Aaj Tak saw its ratings increase by 13 percent in week 39 to 74.127 million weekly impressions in HSM (U) from 65.773 million weekly impressions in week 38. Zee News climbed up a rank to second place in week 39 of 2019 with an increase of 13 percent in viewership to 66.739 million weekly impressions from third place and 58.824 million weekly impressions in week 38. News18 India dropped a place to third rank – its ratings increased 3 percent in week 39 of 2019 to 63.055 million weekly impressions from second rank and 61.067 million weekly impressions in week 38. India TV retained rank four in week 39 of 2019 with an increase of 5 percent in viewership to 61.169 million weekly impressions from 58.101 million weekly impressions in the previous week. ABP News also retained fifth rank with a 7 percent increase in viewership in week 39 of 2019 to 54.059 million weekly impressions from 50.464 million weekly impressions in the previous week.

    Hindi news viewership in HSM (R)

    While the channels in BARC’s list of top 5 Hindi news channels in HSM (R) were same in week 39 of 2019 and week 38, there was a small tweaking in ranks. Further, two of the five channels saw viewership decline, while three saw viewership growth. Combined ratings of top 5 Hindi news channels in HSM (R) in week 39 of 2019 increased just 4 percent to 229.035 million weekly impressions from 219.734 million weekly impressions in week 38.

    In the case of HSM (R) also, Aaj Tak retained rank one with 11 percent increase in ratings to 53.336 million weekly impressions from 48.244 million weekly impressions in week 38. Zee News climbed two places to second rank with 8 percent increase in viewership to 45.522 million weekly impressions from fourth rank and 42.169 million weekly impressions in week 38. ABP News dropped a place to third rank with almost flat ratings (decline of 0.1 percent in viewership) to 44.761 million weekly impressions in week 38 of 2019 from second rank and 44.797 million weekly impressions in week 38. India TV also dropped a rank to fourth place with a decline of 1 percent in viewership to 43.078 million weekly impressions in week 39 of 2019 from third rank and 43.554 million weekly impressions in week 38. Republic Bharat retained fifth rank with an increase of 3 percent in viewership to 42.338 million weekly impressions from 40.970 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Please refer to the figure below:


     

  • BARC week 38: Hindi News ratings fall as AajTak continues dominance

    BARC week 38: Hindi News ratings fall as AajTak continues dominance

    BENGALURU: Hindi News ratings continued their decline in week 38 of 2019 (Week 38: Saturday, 14 September 2019 to Friday, 20 September 2019, period or week under review). After the big jump in ratings in week 21 0f 2019 when the opinion polls followed by results of the national elections, Hindi News ratings had witnessed a steep decline. The abrogation of Article 370 and the formation of the new union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh on 5 August 2019 during week 32 of 2019 saw ratings peak a bit once again, only to gradually climb down. Weekly data of Top 5 Hindi News channels sourced from Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) reveals that the combined total of ratings of the top 5 Hindi News channels in the combined urban (U) and rural (R) Hindi speaking market (HSM) dipped 13 percent in week 38 of 2019 as compared to the previous week. Ratings of the Top 5 Hindi News channels in the urban market – HSM (U) declined 14 percent as compared to a 11 percent fall in the case of HSM (R) during the period under review. BARC data has more weightage for the urban markets as compared to the rural markets.

    AajTak from the India Today Group continued its unimpeded and uninterrupted dominance of the Hindi News genre in HSM (U+R), HSM (U) and HSM (R). Please refer to the figures below for the combined ratings of the top 5 Hindi News channels in HSM (U+R), HSM (U) and HSM (R) respectively.

    Top 5 channels of the Hindi News genre in week 38 of 2019 in HSM (U+R)

    The combined weekly ratings of the Top 5 Hindi News channels in HSM (U+R) declined 13 percent to 511.897 million impressions in week 38 of 2019 as compared to 587.374 million weekly impressions in week 37. While the same channels were present in BARC’s weekly list in HSM (U+R), there was some shuffling in ranks between the two weeks. All the channels witnessed decline in ratings in week 38 of 2019 as compared to week 38.

    AajTak at rank one, witnessed a 16 percent decline in ratings during the period under review in HSM (U+R) to 114.016 million weekly impressions from 134.965 million weekly impressions in week 37. India TV jumped up two places to second rank in week 38 of 2019 with 101.656 million weekly impressions despite a 7 percent decline in viewership from 109.803 million weekly impressions and fourth rank in week 37.

    Zee News slipped a place to third rank in week 38 of 2019 with 100.993 million weekly impressions, a drop of 17 percent as compared to 121.535 million weekly impressions and second rank in the previous week. News18 India also dropped a place to fourth rank in week 38 of 2019 with 99.771 million weekly impressions, a 10 percent decline from the 111.695 million weekly impressions and third rank in week 37. ABP News retained its rank 5 in the list in week 38 of 2019 with 95.261 million weekly impressions which was 13 percent lower than the 109.376 million weekly impressions in week 38. 

    Top 5 channels of the Hindi News genre in week 38 of 2019 in HSM (U)

    The combined weekly impressions of the top 5 Hindi News channels in HSM (U) declined 14 percent to 294.229 million weekly impressions in week 38 of 2019 from 340.308 million weekly impressions in the previous week. The five channels in the list for both the weeks – weeks 38 and 37 of 2019 were the same, however, with a shuffling in ranks. 

    Continuing on at rank 1 in week 38 of 2019, AajTak witnessed a 15 percent drop in ratings in HSM (U) to 65.773 million weekly impressions as compared to 77.704 million weekly impressions in week 37. Climbing up a place to second rank, News18 India saw its ratings decline 11 percent to 61.067 million weekly impressions in week 38 of 2019 from 68.636 million weekly impressions and third rank in the previous week. Zee News dropped a place to third rank and saw its ratings decline 19 percent in week 38 of 2019 to 58.824 million weekly impressions from second rank and 72.467 million weekly impressions in week 37. India TV retained rank 4 in week 38 of 2019 with a decline of 9 percent in viewership to 58.101 million weekly impressions from 64.100 million weekly impressions in week 37. ABP News retained fifth place in week 38 of 2019 with a 12 percent decline in ratings to 50.464 million weekly impressions from 57.401 million weekly impressions in week 37.

    Top 5 channels of the Hindi News genre in week 38 of 2019 in HSM (R)

    The combined weekly impressions of the Top 5 Hindi News channels in HSM (R) declined 11 percent to 219.734 million weekly impressions in week 38 of 2019 from 247.066 million weekly impressions in week 37. The first four channels in the week under review were the same as in the previous week, while the ArnabGoswami-associated Republic Bharat re-entered BARC’s weekly list of Top 5 Hindi News channels in HSM (R) as News18 India exited it. There was a shuffling of places between ranks three and four in week 38 of 2019.

    AajTak, at rank one, saw its viewership decline by 16 percent to 48.244 million weekly impressions in week 38 of 2019 from 57.261 million weekly impressions in week 37. ABP News at second rank saw its ratings drop 15 percent to  44.797 million weekly impressions from 51.975 million weekly impressions and second rank in week 37. India TV climbed a place to third rank in week 38 of 2019 despite a decline of 5 percent to 43.554 million weekly impressions as compared to fourth rank and 45.703 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Zee News dropped a place to fourth rank in week 38 of 2019 with a 14 percent reduction in viewership to 42.169 million weekly impressions from third rank and 49.068 million weekly impressions in week 37. Republic Bharat re-entered BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi News channels in HSM (R) with 40.970 million weekly impressions.