Tag: CNN News18

CNN-News18 gears up for Union Budget 2020; lines up special programming

MUMBAI: To bring most incisive reportage with diversified formats, CNN-News18 has lined-up an array of in-depth yet engaging programming for Budget 2020 that will be presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on 1 Feb 2020.

Under the umbrella branding ‘Vision 2020’, the programming aims to decode and analyse the budget of 2020. It will also gauge the political implications of this crucial budget.

The channel will focus on analysing the expectations of the common man and India Inc. from the upcoming budget and ultimately evaluating its impact on individuals, industry and the overall economy of the country, the release said.

The channel will kick start its programming with its popular segment ‘If I were FM' which will capture suggestions from common citizens for the Finance Minister, along with Corporate Wish list and a special show on personal tax from CNBC-TV18.

CNBC-TV18 managing editor Shereen Bhan will present live pre and post-budget analysis with the panel of leading industry experts at Confederation of Indian Industry.

Network18’s English and business news cluster – chief executive officer Basant Dhawan said, "Expectations from Budget 2020 are high. There are several economic challenges that the Budget is expected to address. CNN-News18 has lined up a comprehensive mix of special programming that will provide viewers a holistic view of the budget through insightful analysis and its impact across sectors."

The budget programming will be led by the channel’s best editorial experts – Bhupendra Chaubey, executive editor; Zakka Jacob, executive editor– output and Anand Narasimhan, executive editor.

They will be joined by a renowned panel of experts comprising Gaurav Choudhury (economy editor & delhi bureau chief, Moneycontrol.com); Saket Mishra, investment banker, Siddharth Zarabi, former executive editor-Business Television India & Dhiraj Nayyar economist/ex-head of economics, financing & commerce, NITI Aayog amongst others.

January 27, 2020
JNU incident raises English News ratings afterslump in last week of 2019

BENGALURU: After an expected slump in viewership in the last BARC week of 2019 – week 53 (Saturday 28 December 2019 to Friday, 3 January 2020), the combined viewership of top 5 English News channels increased 9.2 percent to 1.835 million weekly impressions in week 1 of 2020 (Wy01 of 2020) from 1.681 million. Viewership was also boosted by the happenings at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on January 5 and their subsequent fall out.

There was a small change in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly list of top 5 English News channels in week 1 of 2019 (Saturday, 4 January 2020 to Friday 10 January 2020) – pubcaster network Doordarshan’sEnglish News channels DD India exited the list to be replaced by the Pronnoy and Radhika Roy led NDTV 24×7 which re-entered BARC’s weekly list after a short hiatus of two weeks. Earlier NDTV 24×7 had re-entered BARC’s weekly list of top 5 English News channels in week 51 of 2019 for the first time since BARC Recommenced publication of viewership data in the public domain in week 13 of 2019. BARC had stopped publication of weekly data in the public domain between weeks 6 and 12 of 2019 to enable stabilisation of viewership after the implementation of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) New Tariff Order.

Please refer to the figure below:

As has become the norm, the top 2 channels in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 English News channels in week 1 of 2020 were same – the Arnab Goswami led Republic TV and his previous employer – Times Now. India Today Television moved up a place to rank 3 in week 1 of 2020 from rank 4 in week 53 of 2019. CNN News India also moved up a place to rank 4 during the week under consideration from rank 5 in the previous week. As mentioned above, NDTV 24×7 re-entered the list at rank five.

Please refer to the figure below:

Republic TV saw its ratings climb 8.1 percent to 0.615 million impressions in week 1 of 2020 from 0.569 million in the previous week. Times Now saw its viewership climb 14 percent in week 1 0f 2020 to 0.481 million weekly impressions from 0.422 million weekly impressions in week 53 of 2019. The India Today group’s India Today Television saw ratings jump 27.7 percent in week 1 of 2020 to 0.327 million weekly impressions from 0.256 million.

CNN News18 saw viewership climb 26.6 percent to 0.224 million weekly impressions from 0.177 million weekly impressions. NDTV 24×7 entered the list with 0.188 million weekly impressions in week 1 of 2020.

Please refer to the figure below

January 17, 2020
CAA protests helped English News ratings spurt in weeks 51 and 52

BENGALURU: Anti and pro CAA protests helped bump up English News viewership in weeks 51 and 52 of 2019 as compared to the previous week according to Broadcast
Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly data. BARC data of top 5 English News channels for weeks 51 and 52 saw viewership jump 22.68 percent and 16.99 percent respectively for weeks 51 and 52 as compared to week 50 of 2019. Viewership of Top 5 English News channels in week 52 declined 4.63 percent as compared to week 51 of 2019.Combined viewership of top 5 English News channels in weeks 50, 51 and 52 was 1.883 million, 2.310 million and 2.203 million weekly impressions respectively.

Week 50 = Saturday, 7 December 2019 to Friday, 13 December 2019
Week 51 = Saturday, 14 December 2019 to Friday, 20 December 2019
Week 52 = Saturday, 21 December 2019 to Friday, 27 December 2019

It must be noted that (1) BARC released viewership data in the public domain for weeks 51 and 52 of 2019 on 3 January 2020 due to problems in collection of data from a number of states that faced protests for and against the CAA. Also BARC has reverted to an older method of considering data starting week 23 of 2019.

Please refer to the chart below for combined ratings of top 5 English News channels
between weeks 13 and 52 of 2019.

Ratings of top 5 English News channels

Please refer to the figure below for ratings of top 5 English News channels between weeks 13 and 52 of 2019. It must be noted that NDTV 24×7 was present for only week – week 51 of 2019 during the 40 week period in the figure below:

Week 51 saw the entry of Prannoy and Radhika Roy-run NDTV 24×7 in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 English News channels after a long hiatus at the cost of pub-caster’s English News channel DD India. However, NDTV 24×7 entry was short-lived – it exited BARC’s weekly list of top 5 English News channels in week 52 with the return of DD India. The other 4 channels in BARC’s weekly lists were same during the three weeks under consideration in this paper. Please refer to the figure below for the ranking of top 5 channels between weeks 13 and 52 of 2019.

As has been the norm in general, the Arnab Goswami-headed Republic TV was ranked one during all the three weeks under consideration. Republic TV scored 0.589 million,
0.806 million and 0.748 million weekly impressions in weeks 50, 51 and 52 respectively. Times Now was also ranked second during all the three weeks under consideration with 0.508 million, 0.618 million and 0.569 million weekly impressions in weeks 50, 51 and 52
of 2019.

In week 50, DD India was ranked third with 0.313 million weekly impressions. In weeks 51 and 52, it was the India Today Group’s India Today Television that was ranked third with 0.362 million and 0.371 million weekly impressions respectively. India Today Television was at rank 4 in week 50 with 0.265 million weekly impressions. As mentioned above, NDTV 24×7 entered the list in week 51 with 0.269 million weekly impressions, while in week 52 it was DD India at rank 4 with 0.291 million weekly impressions.

Network18’s CNN News18 was ranked fifth during all the three weeks under consideration. The channel scored 0.208 million, 0.255 million and 0.224 million weekly impressions in weeks 50, 51 and 52 of 2019 respectively.

January 6, 2020
CNN-News18 brings eighth edition of talk show ‘The Bollywood Roundtables’ with Rajeev Masand

MUMBAI: CNN-News18 will telecast the eighth edition of its award winning talk show ‘The Bollywood Roundtables’. Hosted by the Entertainment Editor and renowned critic Rajeev Masand, the show is a year-end omnibus on bollywood and features India’s finest filmmakers, actors and artists who are behind some of the most talked about films and performances of the year.

As a part of the special series, Rajeev Masand will interact with top actors, actresses and directors such as Shahid Kapoor, Ayushmann Khurrana, Ranveer Singh,Nitesh Tiwari, Zoya Akhtar, Alia Bhatt and, Vidya Balan who are behind the most talked about films and performances of the year.

The series will feature candid, freewheeling and eye-opening conversations with guests as they discuss their craft, inspiration, influences and challenges they face.

The show will be aired on Saturday, December 14, at 8 PM and 11PM and Sunday, December 15, at 2 PM and 10PM, only on CNN-News18

December 14, 2019
Maharashtra political dance pips English News ratings 24 per cent in week 48

BANGALORE: The political dance, the shenanigans by various political parties for premiership in Maharashtra politics provided News channels with more eyeballs in week 48 of 2019 (Saturday, 23 November 2019 to Friday, 29 November 2019, week or period under review) as compared to the previous week according to Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly data.

BARC data for the Top 5 English News channels for the period under review saw the combined ratings of the top 5 channels from the genre spike up to 2.211 million weekly impressions from 1.780 million weekly impressions during the previous week.

While the channels in the lists for both weeks were the same, there was some tweaking in the ranks – Public broadcaster Doordarshan’s English News channel slipped to fifth rank in week 48 from third rank in week 47 of 2019. The India Today group’s India Today Television climbed up a place from fourth rank to replace DD India, while Network18’s CNN News 18 also climbed up a place to fourth rank in week 48 of 2019.

As mentioned by us earlier, the combined ratings of the Top 5 English News channels had breached a new nadir during week 47 of 2019 to reach an all-time low since BARC recommenced publication of viewership data in the public domain in week 13 of 2019. For the optimist, viewership of the English News genre could only go up from that low of week 47 of 2019.

Please refer to the figures below:

Top 5 English News channels in week 48 of 2019

The Arnab Goswami led Republic TV continued its dominance of the English News genre at first rank in week 48 of 2019 with an increase in weekly viewership of 35 percent or 0.197 million weekly impressions to reach 0.755 million weekly impressions from the 0.588 million weekly impressions it had garnered in the previous week.

Times Now continued at second place with a 35 percent or 0.146 million weekly impressions increase in week 48 of 2019 to reach 0.561 million weekly impressions from 0.415 million weekly impressions in week 47.

India Today Television climbed up a place to fourth rank with an increase of 36 percent or 0.102 million weekly impressions in week 48 of 2019 to reach 0.383 million weekly impressions from fourth rank and 0.281 million weekly impressions in the previous week.

CNN News18 also climbed up a place to fourth rank with an increase of 0.05 million weekly impressions in week 48 of 2019 to reach 0.268 million weekly impressions from fifth rank and 0.218 million weekly impressions in week 47.

DD India slipped two places to fifth rank in week 48 of 2019 with a decline of 0.064 million weekly impressions to reach 0.244 million weekly impressions from third rank and 0.308 million weekly impressions in the previous week.

Please refer to the figure below:

December 6, 2019
CNN-News18 in partnership with Smile Foundation launches #DilliKiHawaBadlo campaign

MUMBAI: Of the world’s 30 most polluted cities, 22 are in India. New Delhi, one of the most polluted capitals in the world, again witnessed record-high levels of air pollution earlier this season forcing schools to be closed. Continuing with its motto of ‘On Your Side’, CNN-News18, in partnership with Smile Foundation launched a unique state-wide awareness campaign – #DilliKiHawaBadlo. Endorsed by top schools across the capital, the initiative aimed at raising cognizance on the importance ofindividual contribution towards curbing air pollution.

The campaign was geared towards educating children to act on day-to-day activities and bring change at the ground level. Commenting on the initiative, Network18 English & Business News Cluster CEO Basant Dhawan said, “Air pollution has become a serious environmental and public health emergency. We, at CNN-News18, have always believed in raising relevant issues and creating impactful conversations to drive change. Through this initiative, we aim to mobilise the society with children as the change agents. We are focused on creating a steady drumbeat around such burning issues and with such campaigns, we are going beyond television to speak directly to our viewers.”

Elaborating on the campaign, Smile Foundation Co-founder and Trustee Santanu Mishra said, "Our ChildforChild programme seeks to inculcate a conscience and value system in the children so that they grow up to become responsible citizens and change-makers. Through #DilliKiHawaBadlo, we conducted workshops on air pollution, which included both awareness on the issue, as well as ways to protect themselves and the planet. Simple actions like planting trees, curbing plastic use, recycling waste etc. that can be carried out by students were discussed. We thank CNN-News18 for this collaboration in helping us bring to light such an important issue."

Given that children are highly perceptive to change, the campaign primarily focused on inculcating behaviour change at an individual and household level through continuous education and awareness. In a month-long outreach, the initiative received overwhelming participation from the top schools of New Delhi such as Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, Air Force Bal Bharti, Delhi International School amongst others. The experts from Smile Foundation conducted workshops with hundreds of students. CNN-News18 distributed anti-pollution masks and engaged with over 700 individuals including students, teachers, support staff and parents to help them stay healthy while outdoors

December 3, 2019
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:

December 2, 2019
BARC week 46: Uptick in English news channel viewership

BENGALURU: Recent events in the country resulted in the increase in viewership of news channels. Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly data for Top 5 English news channels in week 46 of 2019 (Saturday, 9 November 2019 to Friday, 15 November 2019, week or period under review) shows a sharp increase in ratings as compared to the previous week. Among the major news events that took place during the week under review was the Supreme Court’s verdict for the Ayodhya dispute.

Over the past few weeks, combined viewership of the top 5 English news channels had stabilised to some extent and then witnessed a slight dip in week 45, which was followed by an increase of 0.696 million or 38.4 percent in week 46 of 2019. The combined weekly impressions of the top 5 English news channels were 1.813 million in week 45 and 2.509 million in week 46 of 2019.

A slight digression here. It must be noted that since week 13 until week 46 of 2019, the channels have been the same in BARC’s weekly list of Top 5 English news channels, except for tweaking of ranks. BARC has stopped publishing data in the public domain after week 5 of 2019 to allow ratings of channels to stabilize after the implementation of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) mandated New Tariff Order (NTO). BARC recommenced publishing data in the public domain in week 13 of 2019 on urging by TRAI.

Please refer to the figure below:

Top 5 English news channels in week 46 of 2019

As mentioned above the Top 5 English news channels in week 46 have been the same since week 13 of 2019. In the case of week 46 of 2019, even the ranks of the channels were the same as in the previous week (week 45).

Please refer to the figure below for ranks of the top 5 channels:

In absolute numbers, the Arnab Goswami-headed Republic TV saw the maximum increase in viewership with an uptick of 0.263 million impressions (44 percent increase), while India Today Television saw the ratings increase by just 86,000 (31.2 percent increase) in week 46 as compared to week 45 of 2019. In terms of percentage, pubcaster Doordarshan’s English news channel DD India saw viewership increase of 52.9 percent (0.148 million weekly impressions),while Times Now saw an increase of just 32.4 percent (0.152 million weekly impressions) in week 46 as compared to week 45 of 2019.

Over the past few weeks, combined viewership of the top 5 English news channels had stabilised to some extent and then witnessed a slight dip in week 45, which was followed by an increase of 0.696 million or 38.4 percent in week 46 of 2019.

Republic TV scored 0.859 million weekly impressions in week 46 as compared to 0.596 million weekly impressions in week 45 of 2019. At second rank, Times Now scores 0.565 million weekly impressions during the period under review as compared to 0.454 million weekly impressions in the previous week.

Ranked three in week 46 of 2019, DD India scored 0.428 million weekly impressions as compared to 0.280 million weekly impressions in week 45. India Today Television garnered 0.362 million weekly impressions in week 46 at rank 4 as compared to 0.276 million weekly impressions in week 45 of 2019. Completing the quintet at rank 5 was Network18’s CNN News18 which saw viewership increase of 88,000 weekly impressions in week 46 of 2019 to 0.295 million weekly impressions from 0.207 million weekly impressions in the previous week.
Please refer to the figure below:

November 22, 2019
CNN News18 moves to 3rd rank as Republic TV continues to lead English News

BENGALURU: Network18’s English News channel CNN News18 has moved over the past few weeks from fifth rank in week 41 of 2019 to third rank in week 44 (Saturday, 26 October 2019 to Friday, 1 November 2019, week or period under review). The channel was ranked fourth in weeks 42 and 43 of 2019. In the meantime, the Arnab Goswami headed Republic TV continued its leadership role of the genre that it had retaken in week 23 of 2019.

All the five channels in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India’s (BARC) weekly list of Top 5 English News Channels in week 44 were the same as in week 43 of 2019 (previous week or period). There was some shuffling in ranks. Week 43, which had witnessed elections and counting of votes for two state assemblies, saw the combined viewership of Top 5 English News Channels jump up by 34 percent to 2.524 million weekly impressions as compared to 1.888 million weekly impressions in week 42. The week under review saw the combined ratings of the Top 5 English News channels drop 22 percent from the 2.524 million weekly impressions to 1.978 million weekly impressions. Please refer to the figure below

Please refer to the figure below for the ranks of the Top 5 English News Channels:

Top 5 English News Channels performance in week 44 of 2019

As mentioned above Republic TV continued on at rank one in week 44 of 2019 with 0.624 million weekly impressions as compared to 0.846 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Also continuing on at second rank was Times Now in week 44 of 2019 with 0.454 million weekly impressions as compared to 0.658 million weekly impressions in week 43.

CNN News18 climbed up a place to third rank in week 44 of 2019 with 0.317 million weekly impressions as compared to fourth rank and 0.327 million weekly impressions in week 43. DD India also climbed up a place to fourth rank in week 44 of 2019 with 0.311 million weekly impressions as compared to fifth rank and 0.306 million weekly impressions in week 43. The India Today Group’s India Today Television dropped two places to fifth rank with 0.272 million weekly impressions from third rank and 0.387 million weekly impressions in week 43.

Please refer to the figure below:

November 12, 2019
BARC news 42: English news viewership steady over 3 consecutive weeks

BENGALURU: The combined ratings of the Top 5 English news channels for weeks 40, 41 and 42 of 2019 was 1.092 million, 1,878 million and 1.888 million impressions respectively according to Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) data. The channels in the list during all the three weeks were the same, albeit with a small tweak in ranks. As has become a norm, the Arnab Goswami-led Republic TV has topped the ranks for the last twenty weeks in a row between week 23 of 2019 and week 42 of 2019 – the latest week for which BARC’s ratings data is available at the time of writing of this report. During this 20-week period, Times Now has been ranked second for 16 weeks, while pubcaster DD India was ranked second for four weeks. Ranks four and five have been the domains of Network18’s CNN News18 and the India Today Group’s India Today Television. Please refer to the chart below for combined weekly impressions of the Top 5 English news Channels in thousands of impressions followed by the chart of Ranks of Top English news channels.

Ratings in Week 42 (Saturday, 12 October 2019 to Friday, 18 October 2019)

The combined weekly ratings of the top 5 English news channels in week 42 of 2019 increased slightly to 1.888 million weekly impressions from 1.878 million weekly impressions in week 41. Three channels – Republic TV, CNN News18 and India Today Television gained viewership while DD India and Times Now saw viewership decline during week 42 of 2019. The biggest gainer in viewership was CNN News18, while DD India saw the steepest decline during the week under review.

Please refer to the chart below.

At rank one, Republic TV saw a small increase in viewership to 0.581 million weekly impressions in week 42 of 2019 as compared to rank one and 0.579 million weekly impressions in week 41. Times Now climbed back to second rank during the week under review with slightly lower ratings of 0.409 million weekly impressions as compared to third rank and 0.416 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Dropping a place in week 42 of 2019 to third rank was DD India with 0.403 million weekly impressions as compared to second rank and 0.433 million weekly impressions in week 41.

Also climbing up a place to fourth rank was CNN News 18 in week 42 of 2019 with 0.252 million weekly impressions as compared to fifth rank and 0.219 million weekly impressions in week 41. Completing the quintet was India Today Television in week 42 of 2019 with 0.243 million weekly impressions as compared to fourth rank and 0.231 million weekly impressions in the previous week.

October 28, 2019