Tag: India Today Television

Gujarat elections boost news channel ratings as Republic continues to lead English News

BENGALURU: Rahul Gandhi’s shenanigans and Narendra Modi’s sudden and unexpected belligerence at rallies leading up to the Gujarat state assembly elections have resulted in bolstering sagging news viewership, especially for the English news genre. According to Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) data for week 49 of 2017 (Saturday, 2 December 2017 to Friday, 8 December 2017), combined ratings of the top-five English news channels (All India (U+R): NCCS AB : Males 22+ Individuals) increased by 12 percent as compared with the previous week.

While the two politicians put on a spectacle for the viewers, it was the second-ranked Times Now that gained the most–both in terms of viewership as well as percentage of increase in viewership. The channel gained 0.138 million impressions and 22.2 percent increase in percentage of viewership growth during week 49 as compared to week 48 of 2019. However, this was not enough to beat its bête noire and displacer at the top spot–the Arnab Goswami-led Republic TV. Times Now was ranked second during the week under review (week 49 of 2017) with 0.759 million weekly impressions as compared to the genre leader Republic TV’s 0.819 million weekly impressions. Republic TV gained 0.11 million weekly impressions in week 49 and grew by 15.5 percent as against the previous week.

At third was India Today Television in week 49 of 2017 with 0.339 million weekly impressions–the channel witnessed growth of 0.045 million weekly impressions, or 15.3 percent. Following India Today Television was CNN News 18 at fourth place with 0.233 million weekly impressions. CNN News 18 jumped a rank from the previous week’s fifth place with a gain of 4,000 impressions or 1.7 percent as compared to the previous week. Slipping a rank from the previous week’s fourth to fifth and losing 0.044 million impressions (losing 16.7 percent) was the Prannoy and Radhika Roy-led NDTV 24×7.

Hindi News

Hindi news channels also witnessed growth in ratings–the combined ratings of the top-five Hindi news channels-HSM (U+R): NCCS All : 15+ Individuals-grew by 6.6 percent in week 49 of 2017 as compared with week 48. All the channels in week 49 retained their week 48 rankings during the latest week. As expected, the biggest gainer during the week under review in terms of number of impressions as well as growth percentage was the genre leader Aaj Tak with a gain of 12.045 million impressions and growth of 11.1 percent. Aaj Tak recorded 120.442 million weekly impressions during week 49.

At second place in the Hindi News genre in week 49 of 2017 was Zee News with 95.018 million weekly impressions. The Essel group’s premier Hindi News channel gained 5.110 million weekly impressions and viewership growth of 5.7 percent in week 49 as compared to week 48. India TV with 94.135 million weekly impressions was ranked third – the channel had gained 4.568 million weekly impressions and grown by 5.1 percent in week 49 as compared to week 48.

At fourth rank in week 49 of 2017 was ABP News with 91.065 million weekly impressions. ABP News which recorded a gain of 2.6 percent and 2.288 million weekly impressions Completing the top five Hindi News channels quintet was News 18 India with 86.576 million impressions. News 18 India gained 6.269 million weekly impressions and its viewership grew by 7.8 percent in week 49 of 2017 as compared to week 48.

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December 16, 2017
Indian English News genre facing festival blues?

BENGALURU: Is the Indian English News genre facing pre and post festival blues? For that certainly seems to be case when one looks at Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly data for weeks 1 to 43 of 2017. Ratings of the genre dipped in the week leading to, during and the week after India’s biggest festival season – Diwali. The main Diwali days were in during week 42 of 2017. It may be noted that ratings for week 21 of 2017 have not been considered in this paper because in that week English News channels with the support of the News Broadcasters Association (NBA) excluding Republic TV had withdrawn from BARC ratings measurement in protest against what they claimed were unfair practices by Republic TV.

BARC weekly data for the top 5 English News genre (All India (U+R) : NCCS AB: Males 22+ Individuals) shows that the lowest combined ratings of the top 5 English News channels in 2017 until week 43 was in week 2 of 2017 (Saturday, 7 January 2017 to Friday 13 January 2017) at 1.179 million weekly impressions. Week 1 of 2017, with 1.218 million weekly impressions, had the second lowest ratings in 2017 until week 43.

The highest combined ratings of the top 5 English News channels in 2017 until week 43 of 2017 were in week 11 (Saturday, 11 March 2017 to Friday 17 March 2017) at 4.897 million weekly impressions– this was the week during which the election results of five states in India were announced. The second highest combined ratings of the top 5 English News channels were in the week that Republic TV was launched – week 19 of 2017 (Saturday, 6 May 2017 to Friday 12 May 2017) and the combined weekly ratings of the top 5 English News channels were 4.282 million, with Republic TV garnering about half the ratings of the genre – 2.115 million weekly impressions.

After that second peak, the combined ratings of the top 5 English News channels have been on the decline, with a nadir of 1.986 million weekly impressions in the pre Diwali week 41 of 2017 (Saturday, 7 October 2017 to Friday, 13 October 2017). Ratings for week 41 of 2017 were the fifteenth lowest ratings of the genre during the first 43 weeks of 2017 and the lowest ratings after the launch of Republic TV. In week 42 or Diwali week, the genre experienced the seventeenth lowest ratings in 2017 to date, and the second lowest ratings after the launch of Republic TV – 2.050 million weekly impressions. In week 43 (Saturday, 21 October 2017 to Friday, 27 October 2017), the combined ratings of the top 5 channels experienced a slight dip again at 2.206 million weekly impressions.

Now, for slight digression. The Arnab Goswami led Republic TV is a major force to reckon with in the English News genre. Right from its launch, the channel has been garnering a huge chunk of the genres combined ratings. It has usurped the previous leader Times Now numero uno position in the English News genre from the very first week of its launch to date in 2017.

Republic TV’s average contribution to the combined ratings of the top 5 English News channels is about 36 percent – more than a third. In its launch week, the channel had contributed 49.44 percent to the combined ratings of the top 5 English News channels. Its lowest contribution to the genre’s ratings has been 30.56 percent in week 35 of 2017 (Saturday 26 August 2017 to Friday, 1 September 2017) – the channel had scored 0.899 million weekly impressions of the genre top 5 channels ratings combined total of 2.942 million weekly impressions. Hence the figure below shows two curved lines – one that includes the ratings of the top 5 English News channels including Republic TV and another that shows the combined ratings of the second, third, fourth and fifth ranked channels, or ratings without Republic TV ratings (w/o Republic TV).

November 6, 2017
TV Today Network independent director Sudhir Mehra resigns

BENGALURU: TV Today Network Limited (TVTN) has informed the bourses that Sudhir Mehra has resigned from the directorship of the company. The letter to the stock exchanges mentions that Mehra has resigned with effect from 31 October 2017 due to personal reasons.

Mehra had been appointed as an independent director with effect from 2 February 2017 for a period of five years up to 1 February 2021 subject to the approval of shareholders. Mehra’s appointment was confirmed by the shareholders by an ordinary resolution during the company’s annual general meeting on 31 August 2016.

The TV Today Network is an English-Hindi news television network based in India. It is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange and consists of the several news channels that inlcude Aaj Tak (Hindi), India Today Television (English), Tez TV (Hindi), Business Today (English) and Delhi Aaj Tak (Hindi) news channel. The network is associated with the Arun Purie controlled Living Media Inc which publishes India Today magazine. Purie is the chairman and managing director of TVTN.

October 31, 2017
Dominance of Republic TV continues as genre ratings plunge

BENGALURU: The Arnab Goswami-led Republic TV continued to lead the English News genre as the combined weekly ratings of the top 5 English News channels for week 41 (Saturday, 7th October 2017 to Friday, 13th October 2017) reached a new nadir – the lowest ratings in the second half year of 2017 to date.

The combined weekly ratings of the top 5 English News channels (All India (U+R) : NCCS AB : Males 22+ Individuals) in week 41 of 2017 according to Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) were a measly 1.986 million impressions, lower than the peak viewerships of the top two channels in some weeks of 2017. The combined ratings of the top 5 English News channels in week 41 were the fifteenth lowest in 2017 to date. It may be noted that ratings for week 21 have not been considered in this paper.

Despite topping the genre, Republic TV reported its lowest ratings since it launched on 6 May 2017 (Week 19 of 2017) – the channel scored just 0.685 million weekly impressions. Another regular in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 English News channels – CNN News 18, also garnered its lowest weekly ratings for the year to date in week 41 of 2017. The channel was ranked 5 in week 41 with 0.173 million weekly impressions.

Goswami’s previous employer – Times Now was ranked second in week 41 of 2017 – its usual rank after the launch of Republic TV, scoring its eighth lowest viewership in 2017 to date with 0.59 million weekly impressions. India Today Television scored its fourth lowest ratings in 2017 to date with 0.286 million weekly impressions in week 41 of 2017. India Today TV was ranked fourth in week 41 of 2017, after NDTV 24×7 that scored 0.252 million weekly impressions at third place. It may be noted that NDTV 24×7 has not found a place in the weekly top 5 English News channels during all the 41 weeks of 2017 till date, hence its ratings relative to other weeks in 2017 have not been mentioned in this paper.

In the meantime, just post 1100am when detailed BARC data is released to paid subscribers, both the leading English News genres channels – Republic TV and Times Now continued their online tirade, each claiming numero uno status in the genre after slicing and dicing BARC data in a manner than showed each in good light. It may be noted that BARC data is generally released on Thursday for the previous Saturday to Friday period at 1100 hours to paid subscribers. Data for top 5 or top 10 channels or programmes or advertisers is also released on Thursday to the public at 1300 hours on its website.

October 23, 2017
Republic TV tops once again as genre ratings fall

BENGALURU: Republic TV juggernaut continued its relentless dominance of the Indian English News genre according to Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly viewership for week 40 of 2017 (Saturday, 30 September 2017 to Friday, 6 October 2017). The Arnab Goswami led channel has been leading the genre right from its launch 22 weeks ago in week 19 of 2017.

However, BARC data for top 5 English News channels (All India (U+R) : NCCS AB : Males 22+ Individuals) reveals that the combined viewership of the top 5 channels of the genre plunged to lowest ever since week 22 of 2017. Also, Republic TV’s ratings in week 40 of 2017 were the lowest ever since its commencement. It may be noted that week 21 ratings have not been considered in this paper, because the other channels supported by the News Broadcasting Association had stripped their BARC audio watermarks to disallow viewership measurement in protest against what they termed as unfair practices by Republic TV. The errant channels returned to the BARC fold in week 22 of 2017.

Republic TV with 840,000 weekly impressions (Sums) for week 40 of 2017 led the genre, followed by the channel it had disposed from numero uno position when it was launched – The Times Group’s flagship English News channel Times Now that stood at second place with 717,000 weekly impressions (Sums). The previous lowest viewership ratings of Republic TV was in weeks 25 and 27 of 2017 – 868,000 weekly impressions (Sums).

The Prannoy and Radhika Roy led NDTV 24 x 7 climbed to third place in the genre with 347,000 weekly impressions (Sums) in week 40 from fifth rank in week 39 when it had garnered 328,000 weekly impressions (Sums).

NDTV 24×7 was followed by India Today Television at fourth place in week 40 of 2017 with 338,000 weekly impressions (Sums). In week 39 also the channel was ranked fourth with 353,000 weekly impressions (Sums). CNN News 18 dropped two ranks to fifth place in week 40 of 2017 with 244,000 weekly impressions (Sums). The channel had scored 368,000 weekly impressions (Sums) in week 39.

Overall, the Indian English News genre lost viewership in week 40 of 2017 – the combined ratings of the top 5 channels was 2,486,000 weekly impressions the lowest since week 22 of 2017 when the combined ratings of the top 5 channels was 2,463,000 weekly impressions. In week 39, the combined viewership of the top 5 English News channels was 2,888,000 weekly impressions. Please refer to the figure below for the combined ratings of the top 5 English News channels for weeks 1 to 40 of 2017.

October 12, 2017
Republic TV leads even as ratings fall

BENGALURU: The Arnab Goswami-led Indian English News channel Republic TV continued to lead its genre in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly list of top 5 English News channels (All India (U+R) : NCCS AB : Males 22+ Individuals) in week 35 of 2017 (Saturday, 26 August 2017 to Friday, 1 September 2017).

The channel has been the genre leader right from the first week since its launch on Saturday, 6 May 2017 (Week 19 of 2017). Two channels lost viewership in week 35 as compared to week 34, while the other three gained viewership in terms of weekly impressions.

Though Republic TV topped the English News genre, it obtained only 0.899 million weekly impressions in week 35 as compared to the 1.048 million weekly impressions in week 34 or the 2.117 million weekly impressions in the week of its launch. Following on the heels of Republic TV was the previous genre topper Times Now with 0.868 million weekly impressions at second place in week 35. In week 34 of 2017, Times Now had obtained 0.836 million weekly impressions.

Times Now was followed by India Today Television at the third place in week 35 with 0.489 million impressions, better than the 0.437 million impressions in week 34. NDTV 24×7 climbed back to fourth place of week 33 in week 35. The channel scored 0.378 million impressions as compared to the 0.325 million impressions in week 34. CNN News 18 completed the quintet at fifth place with 0.308 million impressions in week 35, lower than the 0.333 million impressions in week 34.

September 7, 2017
Republic TV continues to lead English News genre for 16th consecutive week

BENGALURU: The Arnab Goswamin-led Indian English news channel Republic TV continued to lead the genre for the sixteenth week in a row (fifteenth, if numbers for week 21 are not considered) in week 34 (Saturday, 19 August 2017 to Friday, 25 August 2017).

Republic TV was launched on 6 May 2017, the first day of week 19 of 2017 and has been leading the genre since. The channel garnered 1.048 million weekly impressions, in week 34, almost the same as the 1.044 million weekly impressions it had in the previous week.

As reported by Indiantelevision.com earlier, just a couple of weeks after the launch of Republic TV – in week 21, its peer Indian English news channels had withdrawn their watermarks owing to which BARC was unable to fairly measure ratings for the English News genre – the rebelling channels didn’t want BARC to measure the new entrant’s ratings, claiming that Republic TV was using unfair means to garner more ratings. BARC refused to kowtow, saying that it was only a measuring agency, not a compliance agency. For one week ratings of Indian English News channels were not published by BARC, until the erring channels returned to the BARC audience measurement fold.

For a change, this Thursday, just post 1100 am when BARC reveals ratings to channels, Times Now did mention the breakup in percentage terms its overall relative share as has been the norm. The channel just ran a still showing that it had a relative share of 37 percent. It’s bête noire, Republic TV, however did give a breakup of primetime ratings from its perspective. Both channels however did continue their traditional ticker tapes boasts and claims, while running each other down.

Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) data for Top 5 English News channels (All India (U+R) : NCCS AB : Males 22+ Individuals) for week 34 reveals that two of the top 5 English News channels lost viewership in week 34 as compared to week 33. While Times Now lost ratings, CNN News 18 and NDTV 24×7 interchanged fourth and fifth places in week 34, with the latter losing viewership. Overall, the genre seems to have reported lower viewership if one were to go by the combined weekly impressions of the top 5 English News channels in week 34 ad compared to week 33. The combined weekly impressions of the top five English News channels were 2.979 million in week 34 as compared to 3.091 million in week 33.

Republic TV’s closest competitor Times Now lost over 203,000 weekly impressions at the reported 0.836 million weekly impressions in week 34 as compared to the 1.039 million weekly impressions in week 33. India Today Television retained its third place in the list with 0.437 million weekly impressions in week 34 as compared to 0.366 million weekly impressions in week 33.

CNN News 18 was at fourth place in week 34 with 0.333 million weekly impressions as compared to fifth place in week 33 with 0.290 weekly impressions. NDTV 24×7 was fifth in the week with 0.325 million weekly impressions as compared to 0.352 million weekly impressions and fourth place in week 33.

August 31, 2017
Republic TV helps increase English News genre viewership

BENGALURU: Arnab Ranjan Goswami is one of the most recognised faces on Indian Television. Earlier, as the editor-in-chief of the Times Network flagship English News channel Times Now, Goswami raised the hackles of many during his shows on the channel. He quit Times Now in November last year to start another English News channel. Goswami is now the managing director and editor-in-chief of Republic TV, which launched on 6 May 2017. Republic TV is now the bête noire of Times Now.

Goswami still continues to shout down, to run down panelists who don’t agree with him, who don’t listen to him, who don’t see him eye-to-eye. One may like him, hate him, but one just can’t ignore him.

And this seems to work for viewers, going by the ratings that Republic TV has been getting. Right from the first week of its launch (week 19 of 2017 – Saturday 6 May 2017 to Friday 12 May 2017) the channel has topped Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) ratings in its genre.

Now, to some background. Republic TV has not had a welcome from its peer English News channels – various attempts have been made to make the channel’s presence in the English News genre as unhealthy as possible. Just a couple of weeks after the launch of Republic TV – in week 21, its peer Indian English news channels had withdrawn their watermarks which made it difficult for BARC to fairly measure ratings for the English News genre – the channels didn’t want BARC to measure the new entrant’s ratings claiming that Republic TV was using unfair means to garner more ratings. BARC refused to kowtow, saying that it was only a measuring agency, and not a compliance agency. For a week, ratings of Indian English news channels were not published by BARC, until the erring channels returned to the BARC audience measurement fold.

Republic TV has been topping the BARC weekly ratings charts (All India (U+R) : NCCS AB : Males 22+ Individuals) for 15 weeks (14 weeks excluding week 21) since its launch. Republic TV and Times Now are the top two channels in the genre. The other channels – be it India Today Television, NDTV 24×7 or CNN News 18 have so far managed to garner half or lesser viewership than Times Now during the first 33 weeks of 2017.

In week 19 – the week that it was launched, Republic TV garnered 2.117 million weekly impressions – the second highest ratings ever by a channel in 2017. Week 19 was an ordinary week, and yet the ratings for its biggest competitor and Goswami’s previous employer – Times Now rose by 78 percent to 1.148 million impressions as compared to its week 18 ratings of 0.645 million weekly impressions. The combined ratings of the other 4 channels besides Republic TV that belong to top 5 English News channels list in week 19 (Times Now, NDTV 24×7, India Today Television CNN) were just a little more than those of Republic TV at 2.165 million weekly impressions. The combined ratings of the English News genre in week 19 of 2017 were 4.282 million, the second highest ratings ever by the genre’s top 5 channels in 2017.

The only other time that a channel obtained higher ratings was in week 11 of 2017 – (Saturday, 11 March 2017 to Friday 17 March 2017) – this was the week in which election results for five states were announced. Times Now garnered 2.282 million weekly impressions in that week – note Republic TV was not present on television at that time. The combined weekly impressions of the top 5 English News channels in week 11 were 4.897 million– the highest combined ratings obtained by the top 5 channels of the genre to date in 2017.

Until week 18, the average ratings of the English News genre were 1.884 million weekly impressions. Between weeks 19 and 33 (excluding week 22 ratings) the genre’s average ratings have gone up by 65 percent to 3.107 million weekly impressions. Please refer to the figure below:

The other English News channels have also gained because of Republic TV. The average ratings of the other 4 channels from BARC’s top 5 English News channels list between week 19 and week 33 (excluding Republic TV, from week 19 onward) was 1.9 million weekly impressions. The number may seem just a little more than average weekly impressions of 1.884 million of the top 5 English News channels until week18 – note this is the combined number for 5 channels, while average of 1.9 million weekly impressions after week 18 is the number for 4 channels.

Republic TV’s closest competitor Times Now has seen a 26 percent increase in its average weekly ratings for 14 weeks between weeks 19 and 33 of 2017 (excluding week 21) to 0.947 million weekly impressions as compared to the average of 0.751 million weekly impressions the channel had for 18 weeks – between weeks 1 to 18 of 2017. Over the past few weeks, Times Now ratings have been closing in on Republic TV’s ratings. Will the channel be able to claw back to its numero uno position? Only time can tell.

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August 28, 2017
Times Now narrows gap with Republic TV, again

BENGALURU: Over the last few weeks, a see-saw ratings battle is on between the two of the leading Indian English news channels – the Arnab Goswami-led Republic TV that has held a pole position for over a quarter of a year since its launch, and its nearest competitor and the ratings king it dethroned – Times Now.

For week 32 of 2017 (Saturday, 5 August 2017 to Friday, 11 August 2017), according to Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly list, of the top five news channels in the English News genre – All India (U+R): NCCS AB: Males 22+ Individuals, the weekly difference in impressions between the two channels has dropped to 7,000 with Republic TV in the lead.

Earlier, in week 30 of 2017,the difference in the ratings of the two channels had dropped to just 2,000 impressions. Republic TV was ahead with 1.074 million weekly impressions to Times Now 1.072 million impressions in week 30 of 2017. The gap then increased in week 31 of 2017 to 29,000 with Republic TV garnering 1.058 million weekly impressions to Times Now’s 1.029 million impressions.

BARC data indicates that Republic TV was ahead of Times Now in week 32 of 2017 with 1.124million weekly impressions to Times Now weekly impressions of 1.117 million. India Today Television maintained the third place that it has been holding over the past few weeks of 2017 with 0.407 million weekly impressions followed by CNN News 18 with 0.268 million weekly impressions at fourth place and NDTV 24×7 with 0.243 million weekly impressions at fifth place.

In the meantime, both the top channels continued their on air chest thumping battle, slicing and dicing BARC data to the numbers that make them appear the best in the genre. While Times Now quoted relative share as a yard stick to show that it was far ahead of Republic TV, the latter bandied figures for prime time to claim that it was far ahead of Times Now.

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August 18, 2017
Times Now closes in on Republic TV

MUMBAI: After beating all leading news channels by a huge margin as per BARC India data since the week after it was launched on 6 May, the curiosity factor of Republic TV seems to be waning in the last couple of weeks.

Last week (BARC week 29), the second position-holder — Times Now — was behind Republic TV by 130 Impressions (000s) sums after gaining 135 Impressions (000s) as compared to BARC week 28. Now, the gap has been reduced to just 2 Impressions (000s) sum this week (BARC week 30).

As compared to the what the editor calls itself ‘David’ Republic TV’s 1074 Impressions (000s) sums, the ‘Goliath’ Times Now this week is trailing at 1072 Impressions (000s) sums.

At the third position, with a wide gap, stood India Today Television bagging 374 Impressions (000s) sum closely chased by the two channels NDTV 24×7 and CNN News18 at fourth and fifth positions respectively with 360 Impressions (000s) sums and 354 Impressions (000s) sums.

It remains to be analysed whether it is the result of the choice of content, the effective presentation or the distribution strategy that is at work. Whether Times Now would reclaim its long-standing leadership position next week is a moot point.

Also Read:

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August 3, 2017