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Tag: Ayodhya Verdict

  • BARC week 47: English news ratings plunge to a new low

    BARC week 47: English news ratings plunge to a new low

    BENGALURU: After the previous week’s uptick, due to the Ayodhya and other Supreme Court of India verdicts, English News viewership plunged to a new nadir in 2019 in week 47. The combined weekly impressions of the Top 5 English News channels in week 47 of 2019 (Saturday, 16 November 2019 to Friday, 22 November 2019, period or week under review) were just 1.780 million weekly impressions according to Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly data. Combined ratings of Top 5 English News channels viewership declined 28 percent during the week under review from the 2.509 million weekly impressions recorded in the previous week (week 46).

    BARC weekly data in this paper is being considered from week 13 of 2019 to week 47. Calendar year 2019 has been an eventual year as far as publication in the public domain of Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly viewership data is concerned. First,the ratings  agency stopped publishing data in the public domain from week 6 of 2019 onward after the implementation of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India  (TRAI) New Tariff Order (NTO), ostentatiously to give time for viewership to stabilize and hence prevent ‘misuse’ of data. On coercion from TRAI, BARC started putting up data in the public domain from week 13 of 2019 onward, only to revert to an older version of treating data on the landing pages and outliers from week 23 of 2019. Hence the combined viewership of the Top 5 English News channels has been the lowest yet during the 35 weeks since week 13 of 2019.

    There was no change in the channels in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 channels in week 47 of 2019 as compared to weeks 45 and 46 of 2019. Even the ranks of the 5 channels were in the same order. Please refer to the figure below:

    Top 5 English News channels in week 47 of 2019

    As mentioned above, there was no change in list of channels in terms of rank and file during week 47 of 2019 as compared to week 46. Though the Arnab Goswami led Republic TV headed the pack at first rank during the period under review, it witnessed the largest fall in viewership among the top 5 English News channels in week 47 of 2019. Republic TV’s viewership declined 0.301 million weekly impressions or 35 percent in week 47 of 2019 to 0.558 million weekly impressions  from 0.859 million weekly impressions in week 46.

    Ranked second, Times Now witnessed the third steepest fall in percentage terms and the second in terms of absolute numbers among the top 5 channels of its genre with a decline of 0.150 million weekly impressions or 26.5 percent at 0.415 million weekly impressions in week 47 of 2019 as compared to 0.565 million weekly impressions in the previous week.

    PubcasterDoordarshan’s DD India witnessed the second steepest decline in percentage terms at 28 percent or a decline of 0.120 million weekly impressions (third most in absolute numbers) to 0.308 million weekly impressions in week 47 of 2019 as compared to 0.428 million weekly impressions in week 46.

    With a decline of 22.4 percent or 0.08 million weekly impressions, the India Today group’s India Today Television saw the least decline in percentage terms and the fourth lowest in absolute numbers with a fall of 0.080 million weekly impressions in week 47 of 2019 as compared to week 46. India Today Television scored 0.281 million weekly impressions during the period under review as compared to 0.361 million weekly impressions in week 46 of 2019.

    Mukesh Ambani’s Network18 associated CNN News18 saw ratings decline by 0.077 million weekly impressions or a fall of 26.1 percent in week 47 of 2019 to 0.218 million weekly impressions from 0.295 million weekly impressions in the previous week.

    Please refer to the figure below:


     

  • ABP garners 271 million viewership on Ayodhya verdict day

    ABP garners 271 million viewership on Ayodhya verdict day

    MUMBAI: Committed towards bringing vital information to its viewers on a real time basis, India’s most trusted media conglomerate – ABP News Network has yet again topped the charts with a gross viewership of 271 Million in the 46th week of 2019. (Source: BARC; TG- ABC 15+; Mkt:HSM; Weekly GVMs).

    With its minute-to-minute updates, of each and every issue to delivering analysis and comprehensive insights on salient policies, ABP News ensured all its viewers were well-informed.

    As per the BARC data, ABP news has maintained its supremacy during the prime-time hours for the crucial week of November 9 to November 15, 2019 in delivering each and every key fact of the nation’s pressing issues. These include Ayodhya Verdict, Maharashtra Political Crisis and Supreme Court’s Rafale Verdict, among others.

    Speaking on the success, Mr. Avinash Pandey, CEO, ABP News Network said, “This data is a reiteration of our commitment and dedicated towards updating our viewers on a real time basis. It proves our dominance in the television landscape and affirms our content as reliable, unique and preferable. I am delighted to see that our efforts and hard work have garnered the trust of millions of viewers. Keeping the momentum going, our goal is to ensure the same credibility to our viewers and be the vanguard of ethical journalism.”

    Last month during the elections in Maharashtra and Haryana, ABP had earned the recognition of being the most prominent source of information in providing minute to minute updates of the states, rallies and the movements.

  • Challenge for the TV news industry is to find the right balance: Barun Das

    Challenge for the TV news industry is to find the right balance: Barun Das

    NEW DELHI: The TV news industry in India is going through a tough phase with high distribution cost, softening of ad revenues, falling standards of news and too many players fighting for a small pie.

    But what happens when suddenly the industry realises that the challenges are too many and efforts are too less? It calls for the top bosses to sit together and scratch their heads to find the right balance.

    Delivering the keynote address at the fourth News Television (NT) Summit in New Delhi, News Broadcasters Association (NBA) VP Barun Das said the need of the hour is to find the right balance.

    Das, who is also CEO of Zee News Ltd, accepted that the challenges the news TV business is facing are bigger than what the industry can handle.

    Ruing the overdependence on ad revenue, Das said: “We are dependent on advertising revenue to run the business. Unlike other markets, subscription, which should have been the revenue leader, has turned into a cost head.”

    Das said there is a mad race for eyeballs and the need to attract the lowest common denominator, which is leading to trivialisation of news. “We should present content in an exciting manner but we have to strike a balance here,” he said.

    Das also mentioned three milestones that shaped the news industry. The first was in 1992 when the government allowed private channels to broadcast news; the second important milestone was the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack coverage, which led the NBA to swing into action and come out with guidelines and advisories. He quoted the example of the coverage of the Ayodhya Verdict, when “everything went right.”

    The third and the most significant milestone was the recession. “Though the Indian economy was never exposed to the kind of recession that gripped the other parts of the world, it helped the Indian news channels to get their focus back on costs,” Das said.
     

  • Ayodhya verdict: Aaj Tak leads the pack

    Ayodhya verdict: Aaj Tak leads the pack

      MUMBAI: As the Allahabad High Court bench was reading out the verdict on India‘s most communally sensitive issue, the common man was hooked on to the news channels for getting updates.

    The result: a huge expansion in the news genre. The Hindi news space saw an unprecedented 132 per cent rise over the previous day to garner a genre share of 18.4 on 30 September. And in the All India market, the share of English news channels was 1.27 per cent, up 130.91 per cent from the trailing day.

    In the highly competitive ratings turf, it was also a time for news channels to score a point over their rival networks. The winners on that day, when the news genre saw an expansion, were Aaj Tak and CNN-IBN in Hindi and English language telecasts.

    As per Tam data (HSM, 15+), Aaj Tak commanded a channel share of 22.7 per cent among the Hindi news channels on 30 September, followed by Star News with 17.8 per cent share.

    India TV lost some of its share on the day of verdict (13.2%), as compared to preceding and following days. Zee News clocked 10.9 per cent share, followed by IBN7 with 9.3 per cent genre share (see chart for details).

    In the English news channel space, CNN-IBN led the flock with a 23.3 per cent share, according to Tam data for All India, 1 mn+ towns, 25+ years. Times Now was, however, in the closest possible race with CNN-IBN, enjoying a 23.2 per cent share.
            
      NDTV 24X7 remained at third spot with 19.4 per cent share, whereas News 9 dislodged Headlines Today for the particular day under review. The channel share of News 9 was 14.6 per cent, as compared to 11.4 per cent of TV Today Group’s English news channel.

    NewsX, which is soon to be changed into IMN News, saw a 67 per cent jump from its previous day viewership and clocked a channel share of 7.7 per cent.

    “The TV news genre saw a huge spike on the Ayodhya verdict day. The ratings indicate that the viewers were more interested in hard news that day,” says a media observer.