ITV

Tag: DD India

  • Prasar Bharati’s DD Network sees a decline in its gross unique viewership

    Prasar Bharati’s DD Network sees a decline in its gross unique viewership

    Mumbai: Prasar Bharati has overall maintained the same position in their genres vis-a-vis private channels in the last three years, as per Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) ratings. As per BARC data for the subscribed DD channel, the gross unique viewership across the network for the past three years has declined and for the current year (till the second week of July i.e. upto week 28) has reached 633 million. The I&B minister Anurag Thakur informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

    Public sector broadcaster Prasar Bharati’s Doordarshan (DD) Network’s gross unique viewership in 2021 was at 684 million as compared to 2020, which was at 747 million views. A total of 760 million views were registered in 2019, as per the BARC’s TV viewership data. This viewership data is also for DD News and DD India till 2 October 2020 and between December 2021 & March 2022.

    Currently, the government is taking corrective measures to increase the viewership of DD channels. It is focusing on improving the quality of programmes and providing relevant content to the viewers.

    In response to a question on whether the government is improving the quality of programmes telecast on the Doordarshan and facing competition from the private TV channels, the minister said, “Prasar Bharati is the public broadcaster and its primary duty is to carry out public broadcasting services to inform, educate and entertain the public and to ensure a balanced development of broadcasting on radio and television. Its purpose is not solely commercial but to reach those areas where no private broadcaster would venture.”

    The minister added, “Doordarshan is committed to quality content and has accordingly taken several steps to produce and acquire high-quality programmes for its network.”

    He mentioned that Doordarshan has also launched the ‘Content Sourcing Portal’ for submission of suo-moto proposals under the Direct Assignment Process (DAP) by production houses. Doordarshan Kendras across the country are upgraded with the introduction of the latest equipment video walls for quality production. The quality of program production, post-production and broadcast has improved with modernization and upgradation.

    Mentioning the Broadcasting Infrastructure and Network Development (BIND) scheme, Thakur said that the public broadcaster was allocated a total of Rs 593 crore under the scheme out of which the total expenditure was Rs 653 crore. The fund was used for the modernisation and augmentation of the capital infrastructure of Doordarshan and for improving the quality of transmission & programmes.

    In the financial year 2021-22, Prasar Bharati was allocated a fund of Rs 175 crore out of which the expenditure was Rs 162 crore. A total of Rs 183 crore was allocated in the financial year 2020-21 and the expenditure was Rs 202 crore. However, the allocated fund was Rs 234 crore in the financial year 2019-20 with an expenditure of Rs 289 crore.

  • DD India records 8.2 million TV reach over eight weeks: Barc

    DD India records 8.2 million TV reach over eight weeks: Barc

    Mumbai: Prasar Bharati’s English news channel DD India has recorded a reach of 8.2 million on TV over the last eight weeks, as per Broadcast Audience Research Council (Barc). The data was for 15+ audience based on a four week rolling average.

    “In terms of TV reach, DD India is the number one English news channel in the country,” said the statement. “Its closest competitor could manage only around half the reach of DD India. Even the viewership for DD India has witnessed a consistent upward weekly growth, registering a whopping total growth of almost 150 per cent over the last eight weeks.”

    Prasar Bharati also reported that its YouTube subscriber base has grown up to 20 million. Recently, DD Sahyadri News crossed 800K subscribers, followed by DD Sahyadri at 600K, DD Odia at 300K, DD India at 200K and DD Tura at 120K.  Prasar Bharati has more than 190 YouTube channels and its regional channels from the South and North-east are the fastest growing in terms of subscriber base.

    Launched in January 2019, DD India reaches more than 190 countries via satellite, OTT platforms and the NewsOnAir app. The channel through its various programmes offers international viewers India’s perspective on domestic and global developments. Its popular programmes include “India Ideas,” “World Today,” “Indian Diplomacy,” “DD Dialogue” and “News Night.”

  • Prasar Bharati inks deal with Yupp TV to expand DD India’s global reach

    Prasar Bharati inks deal with Yupp TV to expand DD India’s global reach

    Mumbai: Prasar Bharati has signed a memorandum of understanding with OTT platform Yupp TV to distribute DD India in USA, UK, Europe, Middle East, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.  

    The content hosting agreement was signed by Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati and Yupp TV founder and CEO Uday Reddy.

    The deal was signed “to expand the global reach of DD India channel, to put forth India’s perspective on various international developments on global platforms and to showcase India’s culture and values to the world,” said the ministry of information and broadcasting in a statement.

    DD India is Prasar Bharati’s international channel. The channel through various programmes offers international viewers India’s perspective on all domestic and global developments. “DD India is available in more than 190 countries and acts as a bridge between India and the Indian diaspora spread across the world,” said the statement.

    The programming on the channel is presented in a thought-provoking manner with sharp analysis and commentary and cutting-edge visual presentation. One of the popular shows is “Bio-Quest,” a series that deals with the origin of Covid-19. Some of the other high viewership shows are “India Ideas,” “World Today,” “Indian Diplomacy,” “DD Dialogue,” “News Night” etc.

  • DD India now available in HD

    DD India now available in HD

    MUMBAI: Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekar Vempati announced today that DD India is going high definition. From October 3, the channel will be available in HD. The broadcaster had ventured into the HD arena with DD National and DD News back in 2017.

     

    Link to tweet: https://twitter.com/shashidigital/status/1312224516748140545

     

    Minister of information & broadcasting Prakash Javadekar congratulated both Prasar Bharti and Doordarshan officials on the launch.

     

    DD India is available in 146 countries all over the globe. It is an English news channel service which also airs programmes for the Indian diaspora and those interested in all things desi.

     

    Prasar Bharti’s decision to push aggressively into the HD playing field is a welcome, if belated, move. Most private broadcasters in India had spun off HD cousins of their standard definition channels more than a decade ago. And internationally, most pubcasters have started experimenting with the 4K format. One Indian broadcaster, TravelXP, has in fact already launched a 4K channel internationally. Whereas in Japan and parts of Europe, TV shows are being test–transmitted in 8K by public broadcasters.

     

     

  • Republic TV continues to lead English News viewership

    Republic TV continues to lead English News viewership

    BENGALURU: There is rarely any middle ground as far as Republic TV Editor Arnab Goswami is concerned. Either you like him or you hate him. On his ‘debates’, which sometimes include long monologues by Goswami who is supposed moderator of the ‘debates’ either you agree with him or you disagree with him. But then this is what India seems to like – his completely nationalistic brouhaha, his often brutal coercions that often fail to impress the coerced, his interpretations of the statusco, his interruptions – this is what sets him a class apart – no other news anchor on Indian News Television has ever gained the admiration, the hatred, the fame, the popularity and the notoriety that Goswami has. And that is what has won his English Television News channel the eyeballs, the sticky eyeballs that make it the most watched Indian English Television News channel in the country in terms of weekly impressions. Except for a handful of exceptional weeks, Republic TV has retained leadership of the genre, right from the week that it launched about 3 years ago on 6 May 2017 – right in the middle of an ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) season when a majority of Indians are glued to the channels that air the cricketing bonanza.

    Earlier, Broadcast Audience Research Council of India limited publishing data for English News channels to NCCS Males 22+ Individual for the Top 5 English News channels in the public domain. Of late the ratings agency has started reporting data for ratings for Top 5 English News channels on a demographic of All India (U+R): NCCS All : 2+ Individuals. In either case, as mentioned above, Republic TV has been the genre leader.

    Please refer to the chart below. Only 3 channels have been present in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 English News channels during the first 22 weeks of 2020. In alphabetical order, they are India Today Television, Republic TV and Times Now. Since Week 17 of 2020, Network18’s English News CNN News18 has also been present in BARC’s Weekly lists of Top 5 English News Channels. As a matter fact, during the first 22 weeks of 2020, CNN News18 was absent from BARC’s weekly top 5 English News channels only once – in Week 15 of 2020.

    Top 5 English News Channels in Week 22 of 2020

    Overall, the combined weekly impressions of BARC’s list of Top English News Channels increased 4.2 percent as compared to the previous week. Only one channel changed in BARC’s weekly list of Top 5 English News channels in Week 22 of 2020 (Saturday, 30 May 2020 to Friday, 5 June 2020, week or period under review) vis-à-vis the previous week. Pubcaster Doordarshan’s DD India exited the list and was replaced by the Radhika and Pronnoy Roy headed group’s NDTV 24×7 at rank 5 which made its sixth entrance into the list during the first 22 weeks of 2020.

    The first four channels in the list retained their ranks in Week 22 of 2020 as compared to the previous week. Republic TV at first rank saw its weekly impressions increase to 9.6 percent to 4.034 billion in Week 22 of 2020 from 3.682 billion in Week 21. At second rank, Times now saw 17.9 growth to 3.208 billion weekly impressions in the week under review from 2.722 billion impressions in Week 21 of 2020.

    CNN News18 at third rank saw an 8.3 percent decline to 1.955 billion weekly impressions in Week 22 of 2020 from 2.131 billion weekly impressions in the previous week. India Today Television at rank 4 saw an increase of 0.3 percent to 1.582 billion weekly impressions in Week 22 of 2020 from 1.578 billion weekly impressions in the previous week. NDTV 24×7 entered BARC’s weekly list of Top 5 English News Channels in Week 22 of 2020 with 0.839 billion weekly impressions. DD India at rank 5 in Week 21 of 2020 had garnered 1.032 billion weekly impressions.

  • R-Day, pre-Budget prep, Delhi election help news channels gain viewership

    R-Day, pre-Budget prep, Delhi election help news channels gain viewership

    MUMBAI: The 71st Republic Day, Budget 2020 preparation and Delhi election campaigns have kept news channels across genres busy, Broadcasting Audience Research Council India portrays in its week 4 data between 25 January and 31 January.

    The TV Today Group’s Aaj Tak has topped the Hindi news segment with 133942 weekly impressions, of which the channel received 54244 weekly impressions in rural and 79699 weekly impressions in urban.

    Gaining at least 106097 weekly impressions, Zee News bagged the second spot in the Hindi news genre in the week 4 report of BARC. The channel achieved 41453 weekly impressions in the rural segment and 64644 in urban.

    Network 18’s News18 India was ranked third with 100395 weekly impressions, followed by India TV at fourth position and Republic Bharat at fifth, both channels received 91481 and 90594 impressions respectively.

    In English genre, Republic TV clinched the top position with 749 weekly impressions, followed by DD India which garnered 713 weekly impressions in Week 4 of BARC. DD India had exclusive rights to telecast the Republic day event, which perhaps helped the channel to gain more eyeballs.

    Times Now being settled at the third position has garnered 515 weekly impressions in Week 4 of BARC. Whereas, India Today Television at fourth position and CNN News18 at fifth spot with 368 and 237 weekly impressions respectively.

    As the budget preparation being the major focus, the business news channel CNBC TV18 of Network18 has gained 275 weekly impressions, followed by Times group’s ET NOW with 123 weekly impressions.

  • BARC week 34: DD India drops to fifth place in English news genre

    BARC week 34: DD India drops to fifth place in English news genre

    BENGALURU: PubcasterDoordarshan’s English News channel DD India dropped to its lowest rank ever in week 34 of 2019 since Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) recommenced publishing viewership data in the public domain. Earlier, the ratings agency had stopped publishing data in the public domain starting week 6 of 2019 allow ratings to stabilize on implementation of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) New Tariff Order. BARC restarted putting up data on its website in week 13 of 2019 on coercion from TRAI.

    During the 22 weeks(including weeks 13 and 34 of 2019) since, DD India has been ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 English News channels four times, has been ranked second 6 times, has been ranked third ten times, and has been ranked fourth and fifth once each. Hence, DD India’s ranking in week 34 (Saturday, 17 August 2019 to Friday, 23 August 2019) has been its lowest ever in 22 weeks. Please refer to the figure below

    All the five channels in BARC’s weekly lists of top 5 English News channels have been the same during the 22 weeks (weeks 13 to 34) under consideration in this paper, except that there has been a shuffling of ranks.

    The combined weekly impressions of BARC’s top 5 English News channels dipped once again in week 34 of 2019 as compared to week 33. This time the week-on-week dip in ratings was even higher at 14.9 percent (0.379 million impressions) as compared to the dip of 11.7 percent (0.338 million weekly impressions)  between weeks 33 and 32 of 2019.In week 34 of 2019, three channels – DD India (52.4 percent drop), CNN News18 (20.3 percent drop) and Times Now (9.5 percent drop) saw ratings fall. Two channel in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 English News channels in week 34 witnessed growth in ratings. They were Republic TV (increase of 0.048 million weekly impressions) and India Today TV (increase of 0.005 million weekly impressions) . Please refer to the figure below:

    Let us see how the top 5 English News channels performed in week 34 of 2019

    The Arnab Goswami led Republic TV retained its first rank with 0.762 million weekly impressions in week 34 of 2019 as compared to 0.714 million weekly impressions in week 33. Times Now climbed up a place to second rank in week 34 of 2019 with 0.498 million weekly impressions as compared to rank three and 0.550 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Climbing up two places to rank three in week 34 of 2019 was India Today Television with 0.321 million weekly impressions as compared to rank five and 0.321 million weekly impressions in week 33. Retaining its previous week’s rank four was CNN News18 with 0.315 million weekly impression in week 34 of 2019 as compared to 0.395 million weekly impressions in week 33. DD India completed the quintet with less than half of its week 33 viewership. At fifth rank,DD India garnered 0.272 million weekly impressions in week 34 of 2019 as compared to second rank and 0.572 million weekly impressions in week 33.

    Please refer to the figure below:


     

  • BARC week 33: DD India returns to second rank in English news

    BARC week 33: DD India returns to second rank in English news

    BENGALURU: Pubcaster Doordarshan’s English news channel DD India has been ranked second or better for 10 weeks across 21 weeks starting week 13 to week 33 of 2019 (Saturday, 10 August 2019 to Friday, 16 August 2019, week or period under review). According to Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly data for top 5 English news channels in terms of viewership ratings, initially DD India was in a dingdong struggle for top slot with the Arnab Goswami-led Republic TV, a slot that the latter managed to wrest. During and post the weeks in which the National Election results were announced, DD India acceded second rank to Times Now and maintained third rank for seven weeks in a row after week 25 of 2019.DD India has returned to rank 2 after a hiatus of seven weeks in week 33 of 2019. 

    To allow for viewership to stabilise after the implementation of TRAI’s new tariff order, BARC India had stopped publishing ratings data in the public domain from week 6 of 2019. On the urging from TRAI, the ratings agency recommenced putting up data starting week 13 of 2019, hence that week has been used as a starting point in this report. Subsequently, BARC changed the manner in which it viewed landing pages and outliers – these actions in concert with other factors have been pulling down viewership numbers of the English news genre.

    Please refer to the figure below:

    The combined weekly impressions of the top 5 English news channels declined by 11.7 percent in week 33 of 2019 to 2.547 million weekly impressions as compared to 2.885 weekly impressions of the previous week as the interest about the events around the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) started to peter out. The average combined weekly impressions of the top 5 English news channels on analysing BARC data between week 13 and 33 are 2.466 million. The present week (week 44) has seen some more events around J&K as well as the taking into custody of former finance and home minister P Chidambaram. Whether these events will be enough to grow or at least sustain English news viewership has to be seen. Please refer to the figure below for combined viewership of top 5 English news channels in thousands (000s).

    Let us see how the top 5 English news channels performed in week 33 of 2019

    Except for DD India which saw a surge in viewership, the other channels in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 English news for week 33 of 2019 saw weekly impressions drop. The channels in the list in week 33 of 2019 were the same as in week 32 with a shuffling of ranks. DD India moved up to second rank, as did CNN News18 which moved up to fourth place.

    Republic TV retained its first rank with 0.714 million weekly impressions in week 33 of 2019 as compared to 0.871 million weekly impressions in week 32. DD India moved to second rank during the week under review with 0.572 million weekly impressions as compared to third rank and 0.528 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Times Now slid a place to third rank with 0.550 million weekly impressions in week 33 of 2019 as compared to second rank and 0.630 million weekly impressions in week 32. CNN News18 moved up to fourth rank with 0.395 million weekly impressions as compared to fifth rank and 0.417 million weekly impressions in week 32. India Today Television slipped to fifth rank in week 33 of 2019 with 0.316 million weekly impressions as compared to fourth rank and 0.439 million weekly impressions in week 32.  Please refer to the figure below:


     

  • BARC week 31: English news weekly ratings fall again

    BARC week 31: English news weekly ratings fall again

    BENGALURU: The combined weekly ratings of the top 5 English news channels declined 4.45 per cent according to Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) data for week 31 of 2019 (Saturday, 27 July 2019 to Friday, 2 August 2019, week or period under review) as compared to the previous week. The combined viewership of the top 5 English news channels in week 31 of 2019 was 1.811 million weekly impressions as compared to 1.896 million weekly impressions in week 30. This was the second lowest total since BARC recommenced publication of weekly data in the public domain in week 13 of 2019.
    As mentioned by us earlier, ratings of English news ratings seem to be on a decline Earlier, in week 29 of 2019, the combined viewership of the top 5 English news channels had achieved a new nadir.Please refer to the figure below:

    The channels in BARC’s weekly lists of top 5 English news channels have been the same since week 13 of 2019. However, there has been some shuffling in ranks during the period. Over the past few week, ranks 1, 2 and 3 have stabilised with the Arnab Goswami-led Republic TV at rank 1, Times Now at rank 2 and pubcaster Doordarshan India’s English news channel DD India at rank 3. During the past three weeks, rank four has been held by Network18’s CNN News18 and rank 5 by the India Today Group’s India Today Television. Please refer to the two charts below

    As mentioned above, ranks one to five seem to have stabilised since the past three weeks, with Republic TV, Times Now, DD India, CNN News18 and India Today Television at ranks 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively.

    Let us see the ratings of the top 5 channels in week 31 of 2019.

    At rank 1, Republic TV saw a small decline in viewership at 0.569 million weekly impressions in week 31 as compared to 0.574 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Times Now saw its ratings bump up to 0.425 million weekly impressions during the week under review as compared to 0.411 million weekly impressions in week 23. Ranked third, DD India saw a big drop in ratings to 0.337 million weekly impressions in week 31 of 2019 as compared to 0.400 million weekly impressions in week 30. CNN News18 also saw a substantial drop in viewership to 0.246 million weekly impressions in week 31 of 2019 as compared to 0.283 million weekly impressions in week 30. Completing the quintet at rank five, India Today Television saw its ratings increase slightly to 0.234 million weekly impressions during the period under review as compared to 0.228 million weekly impressions in the previous week.
     

  • BARC wk 28: English news ratings decline

    BARC wk 28: English news ratings decline

    BENGALURU: The combined weekly ratings of the top 5 English news channels declined to the third lowest total in week 28 of 2019 (Saturday, 6 July 2019 to Friday, 12 July 2019, week or period under review) since week 13 of 2019. 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 ratings in the public domain from week 6 of 2019 after the implementation of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) New Tariff Order (NTO), ostentatiously to give time for viewership to stabilise 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 and outliers from week 23 of 2019.

    During the six weeks since BARC’s adoption of the older method of treatment, ratings of a number of genres have been impacted. The three lowest combined ratings of the top 5 English news channels have happened post week 23 of 2019 – 1.948 million weekly impressions in week 24; 1.918 million weekly impressions in week 26 of 2019 and 1.929 million weekly impressions in week 28 of 2019.  However BARC’s reloaded method of treatment alone cannot be said to be the only reason for lowering of ratings – the last few weeks have seen the ICC’s World Cup 2019 being played in England and Wales, and the timings of cricket matches being played in the tourney often overlapped primetime of a number of genres. The week under consideration saw the last match being played by India – the rain affected match that India lost against New Zealand and was ousted from the tourney at the semi-final stage. The period over the past few weeks has also seen heavy rains and flooding in a number of places across the country. These factors and maybe some others could have had an adverse effect on television viewership.

    Let us see how the English news genre performed in week 28 of 2019

    As mentioned above the combined viewership of the top 5 English news channels was 1.929 million weekly impressions in week 28 of 2019, a decline of 1.8 percent from the 1.964 million weekly impressions in the previous week (week 27). Four channels saw their ratings decline, while one – India Today Television saw a 25.8 percent increase in viewership in week 28 of 2019.

    At its normal first place was the Arnab Goswami-led Republic TV which saw ratings decline of 5.7 percent in week 28 of 2019 to 0.593 million weekly impressions from 0.629 million weekly impressions in week 27. Also continuing on at its previous week’s second rank was Times Now with a 7.8 percent decline in ratings in week 29 of 2019 to 0.424 million weekly impressions from 0.460 million weekly impressions in week 27.

    Retaining its previous week’s third rank was pubcaster Doordarshan’s DD India with a 3.1 percent decline in ratings in week 28 of 2019 to 0.345 million weekly impressions from 0.356 million weekly impressions in week 27. Climbing up a place to fourth rank was India Today Television with a 25.8 percent increase in ratings to 0.288 million weekly impressions in week 28 of 2019 from fifth rank and 0.229 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Dropping a place to fifth rank with a 3.8 percent decline in viewership to 0.279 million weekly impressions in week 28 of 2019 from fourth rank and 0.290 million weekly impressions in week 28 was CNN News18.