Tag: BARC

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

English news

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

English business news

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

Hindi news (U+R)

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

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

Hindi news rural

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

Hindi news urban

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HSM (R)

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

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

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

HSM (U)

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

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

HSM (U+R)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

July 6, 2018
Aaj Tak dominates Hindi news genre in BARC week 26

MUMBAI: The Broadcast Audience Research Council data for week 26 saw some upheavals in the news genre. Mirror Now replaced NDTV24x7 in the English news genre while Republic TV continued to dominate the English news market. Aaj Tak led the chart in Hindi news markets.

English news

Arnab Goswami’s Republic TV retained its top position with 836 impressions (000s) sum compared to 902 impressions (000s) sum last week. Times Now found itself at the second spot with 807 impressions (000s) sum followed by India Today Television at the third position with 262 impressions (000s) sum compared to 278 impressions (000s) sum last week. Mirror Now replaced NDTV24x7 and gained fourth position with 194 impressions (000s) sum, whereas CNN News18 stepped down to fifth position with 185 impressions (000s) sum as compared to 161 impressions (000s) last week.

English business news

CNBC TV18 maintained the top spot with 527 impressions (000s) sum compared to 497 impressions (000s) sum last week, followed by ET Now with 176 impressions (000s) sum. BTVI and CNBC TV18 Prime HD were at third and fourth positions with 62 impressions (000s) sum and 21 impressions (000s) sum respectively.

Hindi news (U+R)

Aaj Tak is at top position this week with 102385 impressions (000s) as compared to 95584 impressions (000s) sum. Zee News steps down to second position with 83627 impressions (000s) sum as compared to 98051 (000s) sum, followed by India TV at the third position with 80492 impressions (000s) sum as compared to 79222 impressions (000s) sum. News18 India and ABP News maintained their fourth position and fifth positions with 77714 impressions (000s) sum and 66737 impressions (000s) sum respectively.

Hindi news rural

Aaj Tak retained its top position in Hindi news rural market with 40888 impressions (000s) sum. News Nation replaced Zee News at second position with 33054 impressions (000s) sum, followed by India TV at third position with 32197 impressions (000s) sum. News 18 India is at fourth position with 31043 impressions (000s) as compared to 26870 impressions (000s) sum last week. ABP News maintained its fifth position with 29749 impressions (000s) sum.

Hindi news urban

Aaj Tak led the genre with 61497 impressions (000s) sum compared to 54740 impressions (000s) sum last week. Zee News stepped down to second position with 55524 impressions (000s) sums compared to 62492 impressions (000s) sum. India TV and News 18 India maintained third and fourth positions with 48295 impressions (000s) sum and 46671 impressions (000s) sum. ABP News was at fifth spot with 36989 impressions (000s) sum compared to 37157 impressions (000s) sum last week.

Also Read:

BARC Week 25: Republic TV dominates English news, NDTV enters top five

ZEE leads Bangla, Marathi and Telugu regions in BARC week 25

Republic TV has 51.9% viewership in debut week: BARC gives data to paid subs despite NBA’s request

July 5, 2018
In South India, local language TV news consumption highest in Karnataka

BENGALURU: The four southern languages – Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam once represented the languages of the four southern states or four sisters as they were then known – Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala. With the splitting of Andhra Pradesh into Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, these languages now represent five states. Tamil is also a dominant language in the Union Territory of Puducherry. Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) started publishing viewership data of top fivenews channels in the four southern languages since week one of 2018 (Saturday, 30 December 2017 to Friday, 5 January 2018) until week 25 of 2018 (Saturday, 16 June 2018 to Friday, 22 June 2018). BARC publishes data based on the urban and rural (U+R) NCCS All: 2+ Individuals demographics for the following languages in the following markets respectively:

(1)   Tamil: In the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry market
(2)   Telugu: In the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana market
(3)   Kannada: In the Karnataka market
(4)   Malayalam: In the Kerala market

Limited analysis of limited data over the past 25 weeks has revealed some interesting and useful information, more so for media planners and advertisers targeting news watching audiences in these markets. People from Karnataka consume almost twice as much of Kannada news as people from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry consume Tamil news. Please refer to the figure below for weekly impressions of top fivenews channels for each language for week one to 25 of 2018 based on BARC data.

The author has determined average of the combined weekly impressions of the top five channels of each language over the 25 weeks of 2018 and has divided it by the population of the state based on the census of India 2011 to arrive at the weekly impressions per person. Though not very accurate, (because there are a lot more news channels in each of the four languages that don’t figure in BARC’s top five channels weekly lists, and populations must have grown and the number of households must have changed since 2011) a rough yardstick is better than none.

Average viewership per household has been obtained by dividing the average combined weekly impressions of the top five news channels in each language by the number of households as per the census of India 2011 data for each state. As mentioned above, in the case of Tamilnews, populations of andthe number of households in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry have been added, to calculate the per person or per household consumptionnumbers.

Consumption of news based on average weekly impressions of top fivenews channels of each of the four South Indian languages per person based on the census of India 2011 populations of these markets is:

(1)   Kannada: 3.09 weekly impressions per person.
(2)   Malayalam: 2.30 weekly impressions per person.
(3)   Telugu: 1.86 weekly impressions per person (Andhra Pradesh was one state during the 2011 census and population and household numbers of the united state have been taken from the census of India).
(4)   Tamil: 1.59 weekly impressions per person (Populations and number of households of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry based on the census of India 2011 have been added to arrive at the total Tamil speaking population/households).

Please refer to the figure below:

Each of the South Indian market has been dominated by one news channel whose average weekly viewership exceeded it next closest competitor by more than 20 percent during the first 25 weeks of 2018. So which are the most watched news channels in the four South Indian languages?

Kannada

Six channels have appeared in BARC’s weekly lists of top five Kannada news channels during the first 25 weeks of 2018. Four Kannada news channels have appeared in BARC’s list during all the first 25 weeks of the year. In order of viewership, they are: TV9 Kannada, Public TV, Suvarna News 24×7 and News18 Kannada. To give a perspective about the dominance of TV9 Kannada, its average weekly ratings during the first 25 weeks of 2018 were almost 50 percent more than the Public TV, 2.72 times more than Suvarna News 24×7 and about 3.87 times that of News18 Kannada.

The other two channels that featured in BARC’s weekly lists of top five Kannada news channels are Dighvijay 24×7 News (18 of the first 25 weeks of 2018) and BTV News (7 of the first 25 weeks of 2018)

Malayalam

Seven channels have appeared in BARC’s weekly lists of top five Malayalam news channels during the first 25 weeks of 2018. Three Malayalam news channels have appeared in BARC’s list during all the first 25 weeks of the year. In order of viewership, they are: Asianet News, Manorama News and Mathrubhumi News. To give a perspective about the dominance of Asianet News, its average weekly ratings during the first 25 weeks of 2018 were more than 2.12 times than Manorama News and more than 2.76 times than Mathrubhumi News.

The other four channels that BARC’s weekly lists of top five Malayalam news channels are: News18 Kerala (22 of the first 25 weeks of 2018), Media One TV (20 of the first 25 weeks of 2018), People TV (7 of the first 25 weeks of 2018) and Janam TV (once during the first 25 weeks of 2018).

Telugu

Eight channels have appeared in BARC’s weekly lists of top five Telugu news channels during the first 25 weeks of 2018. Four Telugu news channels have appeared in BARC’s list during all the first 25 weeks of the year. In order of viewership, they are: TV9 Telugu, NTV Telugu, V6 News and TV5 News. To give a perspective about the dominance of TV9 Telugu, its average weekly ratings during the first 25 weeks of 2018 were about 29 percent more than NTV Telugu, about 61 percent more than V6 News and about 73 per cent more than TV5 News.

The other four channels that appeared in BARC’s weekly list of top five Telugu channels during the first 25 weeks of 2018 are: T News (10 of the first 25 weeks of 2018), 10 TV (eight of the first 25 weeks of 2018), ABN Andhra Jyothi (four of the first 25 weeks of 2018), and Sakshi TV (three of the first 25 weeks of 2018).

Tamil

Seven channels have appeared in BARC’s weekly lists of top five Tamil news channels during the first 25 weeks of 2018. Three Tamil news channels have appeared in BARC’s list during all the first 25 weeks of the year. In order of viewership, they are: Polimer News, Thanthi TV and Puthiya Thalaimurai. To give a perspective about the dominance of Polimer News, its average weekly ratings during the first 25 weeks of 2018 were almost 47 percent more than Thanthi TV and, about 53 percent more than Puthiya Thalaimurai.

The other four channels that appeared in BARC’s weekly list of top five Tamil channels during the first 25 weeks of 2018 are: News 7 Tamil (23 of the first 25 weeks of 2018), Sun News (14 of the first 25 weeks of 2018), News18 Tamil Nadu (12 of the first 25 weeks of 2018), and Seithigal TV (once during the first 25 weeks of 2018).

How does the South Indian News market compare with the Hindi News market?

According to the census of India 2011, the population of the country was 121 crore (1.21 billion) and the number of households was about 24.95 crore (249.5 million). The combined populations of the four South Indian markets was about 25.2 crore (252 million) or about 20.9 percent of the total population of India based on the census numbers for 2011. The combined number of households of these four markets in 2011 was about 6.1 crore (61 million) or about 24.5 percent of the total number of Indian households.

The comparison would not be very accurate since BARC data available in the public domain is for different age demographics. In the case of the Hindi speaking market (HSM) it is HSM (U+R): NCCS All: 15+ Individuals as compared to the respective markets for each of the South Indian languages (U+R) NCCS All: 2+ Individuals. However, as mentioned above, a rough measure is better than none.

The average combined weekly impressions of the top five Hindi news channels HSM (U+R): NCCS All: 15+ Individuals were about 83 percent of the combined weekly impressions of all the four South Indian languages (U+R) NCCS All: 2+ Individuals during the period under consideration in this paper. The average combined weekly impressions of the top five Kannada news channels in Karnataka (U+R): NCCS All : 2+ Individuals were about 42 percent of the average combined weekly impressions of the top five Hindi news channels HSM (U+R): NCCS All: 15+ Individuals during the first 25 weeks of 2018.

Based on BARC data, a limited and conditional conclusion saying that South Indians consume more television news in their local languages than the consumer in the Hindi speaking market does not seem very inappropriate.

July 4, 2018
Two Zeel channels top Hindi GECs in across genres list

BENGALURU: Two Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel) channels were ranked second and third in Broadcast Audience Research Council’s (BARC) weekly list of top 10 channels across genres in week 25 of 2018 (Saturday, 16 June 2018 to Friday, 22 June 2018, week under review). Zeel’s free to air (FTA) Hindi GEC Zee Anmol was ranked second and the network’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV was ranked second in across genres list for week 25 of 2018. The first rank in the list was held by the regular occupier of the slot – the Sun TV Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV.

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

Sun TV held onto its last week’s rank of number one with 946.455 million weekly impressions in week 25 as compared to 929.515 million weekly impressions in week 24 of 2018. Further, Sun TV also was ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top five Tamil channels in the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry markets and all the programmes in BARC’s weekly list of top five Tamil programmes in these markets during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week were aired on Sun TV.

At second place was Zee Anmol with 747.590 million weekly impressions in week 25 of 2018 as compared to 774.331 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Zee Anmol was also ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in the combined urban and rural Hindi speaking markets or HSM (U+R) as also in HSM (R). The Balaji Telefilms-produced soap Kumkum Bhagya aired on Zee Anmol was ranked fourth in BARC’s list of top five Hindi GEC programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U+R) and was ranked first in HSM (R). Another soap from the channel, Mahek, was ranked second in HSM (R).

Climbing up two places to third rank was Zee TV with 606.439 million weekly impressions in week 25 as compared to fifth rank and 587.742 million weekly impressions in week 24 of 2018. Zee TV was ranked third in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R), second in HSM (U) and sixth in HSM (R). Two programmes that were aired on Zee TV- Kundali Bhagya, a spinoff of Kumkum Bhagya was ranked second and Kumkum Bhagya was ranked third in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U). Kundali Bhagya was also ranked fourth in HSM (R) in BARC’s list of top five Hindi GEC programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week.

At fourth rank was SPN’s women-focused Hindi GEC Sony Pal with 601.848 million weekly impressions in week 25 as compared to third rank and 619.539 million weekly impressions in week 24 of 2018. Sony Pal was ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi channels in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R) and was ranked seventh in HSM (U). The sitcom Tarak Mehta ka Ooltah Chashmah aired on Sony Pal was ranked third in BARC’s list of top five Hindi GEC programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (R).

At fifth rank was SPN’s Hindi movies channel Sony Max with 597.083 million weekly impressions in week 25 as compared to 592.364 million weekly impressions in week 24 of 2018. Sony Max was also ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top five Hindi movies channels in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) and was ranked fifth in HSM (R). The Hindi feature film (HFF) Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety that was aired on the channel was ranked fourth in BARC’s list of top five Hindi GEC programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U+R), while it was ranked second in HSM (U). Furthermore, the Aamir Khan-starrer 3 Idiots was ranked the fifth most watched Hindi movies programme during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (R).

Buoyed by the viewership of the third season of the Balaji Telefilms-produced Naagin and the dance show Dance Deewane was Viacom18’s flagship Hindi GEC Colors at sixth rank with 580.417 million weekly impressions in week 25 as compared to seventh rank and 553.387 million weekly impressions in week 24 of 2018. Colors was ranked fifth in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) and was ranked first in HSM (U). Naagin 3 and Dance Deewane found places in BARC’s weekly list of top five Hindi GECs during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U), while Naagin 3 was ranked fifth in HSM (R).

At seventh place was Star India’s FTA Hindi GEC Star Bharat with 574.692 million weekly impressions in week 25 as compared to rank nine and 550.387 million weekly impressions in week 24 of 2018. Star Bharat was ranked fourth in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi channels in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) and was ranked fifth in HSM (R).

Star India’s flagship Telugu GEC Star Maa was ranked eighth with 520.024 million weekly impressions as compared to sixth rank and 575.135 million weekly impressions in week 24 of 2018. Star Maa was ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of top five Telugu channels in the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana market. Three programmes that were aired on Star Maa were present in BARC’s weekly list of top five Telugu programmes during primetime based on average rating across all airings (original and repeat) in the week.

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

Another SPN Hindi movies channel Sony Wah completed BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genres in week 25 of 2018 at tenth rank with 512.431 million weekly impressions as compared to eighth rank and 551.261 million weekly impressions in week 24. Sony Wah was ranked second and fifth in BARC’s weekly list of top five Hindi movies channels in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R). HFF Sultan was ranked first in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R). Two more films that were aired on the channel – Yevadu 2 and Dangerous Khiladi 4 were ranked second and fifth respectively in HSM (R).

July 2, 2018
BARC Week 25: Republic TV dominates English news, NDTV enters top five

MUMBAI: NDTV24x7 replaced Mirror Now in the All India Broadcast Audience Research Council’s (BARC) week 25 ratings. Arnab Goswami’s Republic TV continued to dominate the English news market while Zee News led the charts in two Hindi news markets. News 18 India replaced ABP News in rural segment.

English news

Republic TV retained its top position with 902 impressions (000s) sum compared to 901 impressions (000s) sum last week. Times Now found itself on the second spot with 769 impressions (000s) sum followed by India Today Television at the third position with 278 impressions (000s) sum compared to 270 impressions (000s) sum last week. CNN News 18 retained its fourth position with 161 impressions (000s) sum compared to 173 impressions (000s) in week 24. NDTV24x7 replaced Mirror Now in top five with 151 impressions (000s) sums this week.

English business news

CNBC TV18 maintained the top spot with 497 impressions (000s) sum compared to 517 impressions (000s) sum last week, followed by ET Now with 157 impressions (000s) sum. BTVI and CNBC TV18 Prime HD were at third and fourth positions with 87 impressions (000s) sum and 11 impressions (000s) sum respectively.

Hindi news (U+R)

Zee News is at top position this week with 98051 impressions (000s) sum as compared to 86859 impressions(000s)sum. Aaj Tak steps down to second position with 95584 impressions (000s) sum as compared to 87682 impressions (000s) sum last week, followed by India TV at the third position with 79222 impressions (000s) sum as compared to 76557 impressions (000s) sum. News18 India and ABP News maintained their fourth position and fifth positions with 71661 impressions (000s) sum and 63956 impressions (000s) sum respectively.

Hindi news rural

Aaj Tak retained its top position in Hindi news rural market with 40844 impressions (000s) sum. Zee news is at second position with 35559 impressions (000s) sum compared to 32075 impressions (000s) sum in last week, followed by India TV steps down to third position with 33000 impressions (000s) sum.

News Nation captured fourth position with 30241 impressions (000s) sum compared to 31438 impressions (000s) last week. News 18 India replaced ABP news at the fifth position with 26870 impressions (000s) sum.

Hindi news urban

Zee News led the genre with 62492 impressions (000s) sum compared to 54785 impressions (000s) sum last week, followed by Aaj Tak at second position with 54740 impressions (000s) sum. India TV and News 18 India are at third and fourth positions after interchanging slots with 46222 impressions (000s) sum and 44791 impressions (000s) sum respectively. ABP News is at fifth spot with 37157 impressions (000s) sum.

June 28, 2018
V6 News set to launch Telugu GEC

MUMBAI: VIL Media Pvt Ltd-owned V6 News, a 24-hour Telugu satellite news broadcaster, is set to launch a general entertainment channel.

V6 News, launched in March 2012, managed to gain popularity among the audience in Hyderabad and Telangana market within a short span of time. Earlier, it was reported that Teenmaar news had become the most watched news program for the channel.

The network has executed a soft launch of its GEC, starting test transmission service on Intelsat17 satellite at 66.5 degree east. Indiantelevision.com has also learnt that V6 News’ GEC will be a free-to-air (FTA) channel.

In 2016, V66 News had asked Broadcast Audience Research Council India (BARC India) to suspend its ratings review for some weeks. The channel then temporarily suspended the review of its viewership owing to suspected mala fide practices.

Later in 2015, during week 31 to 34, the channel had scored an average of 192 GRPs against 172 GRPs clocked by its competitorTV9 in the Hyderabad market. V6 News was the fourth most watched Telugu news channel during the first 7 weeks of 2018 with 214,283 impressions. The network’s viewership seems to be growing with time, moving to rank 4 in week 5 and to rank 3 in weeks 6 and 7 of 2018.

Even in week 24, the channel garnered the third position with 22609 impressions, with TV9 Telugu being the leader with 34623 impressions and NTV Telugu securing second position with 28573 impressions.

Considering Star Maa, Zee Telugu, Gemini TV and ETV Telugu and among others are the players in the Telugu market that V6’s GEC will have to compete with, it would be interesting to note what the channel has in store for the audience in its bid to differentiate itself from the pack.

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June 22, 2018
Sports dominated OOH viewership in April-May: BARC

MUMBAI: Contributing more than half of the total TV viewership during the April-May period, the sports genre topped charts in Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India’s Out of Home (OOH) measurement report. Sports accounted for 70 per cent of viewership, while movies and music enjoyed 10 per cent and 8 per cent respectively.

The trend is in line with the fact that these were sports-heavy weeks and thus saw many restaurants, pubs and lounges showcasing channels that were airing the matches.

BARC India CEO Partho Dasgupta said,“Our aim is to measure different screens and pipes and OOH is an extension of that commitment. There is a large population that consumes content on TV which is outside the bounds of home. We realised that it was important to capture those viewers as well. Before we launched rural viewership, there was blind targeting. But, inclusion of rural TV viewership helped advertisers uncover the potential of these areas. We are hoping that OOH viewership will help give better insights to advertisers and provide new opportunities.”

Data also shows that the sports viewership was driven by channels on which Indian Premiere League (IPL) was aired.

A total of 44 million people, in 15+ TG, viewed TV in pubs, lounges and restaurants in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore during April-May. Of this, 33.3 million viewers watched live IPL matches.

BARC’s OOH measurement tracks viewing of individual of the same TG across 900+ establishments in the three cities, using 1500+ meters.

Live telecast of the recently concluded IPL garnered 23.7 million impressions from OOH Viewing. An increment of 8 per cent over the viewership generated from TV homes in these markets, in the 15+ TG.

BARC India leveraged its Audio Watermarking technology and proven measurement capabilities to expand TV viewership measurement to OOH. This pre-subscribed service is a game changer for the industry as it uncovers a significant share of TV viewership which wasn’t being measured until now.

BARC India started its all-India measurement with a sample of 10,000 homes which is currently being raised to 40,000.

Also Read:

BARC Data: Republic TV continues to lead English news

Colors emerges leader in GEC urban in BARC’s week 23 data

June 18, 2018