Tag: India Today TV

Aaj Tak is realigning its revenue structure under Gaurav Verma, while Rahul Shaw drives growth for Stage Aaj Tak

MUMBAI: Curtains up on a leadership shuffle at India Today Group, where Rahul Shaw is stepping into a singular spotlight devoting his full attention to Stage Aaj Tak, the Group’s fast-rising experiential content venture. In doing so, Shaw exits his current roles in the TV and radio businesses to scale what insiders are calling a high-priority growth engine.

As Shaw takes centre stage, Gaurav Verma steps into the wings of Aaj Tak’s revenue operations at least for now. In his interim role, Verma will oversee revenue teams across the South, West, and North regions. The East will continue to be independently steered by Satyaky, while Manisha Solanki and Gunjan Taneja retain command of India Today TV and Good News Today (GNT), respectively.

All of Shaw’s previous direct reports, including Verma, will now report directly to Bhatia. Explaining the rationale behind the reshuffle, Bhatia called it a strategic move to “align our teams for long-term success, foster internal growth opportunities, and intensify our focus on core business priorities.”

In a landscape where content needs to not just inform but immerse, this rejig isn’t just about titles and territories, it’s about building a future-ready playbook. And as this new chapter unfolds, all eyes will be on how Stage Aaj Tak scales new heights under Shaw’s solo spotlight.

May 8, 2025
TV Today Network wins NT Awards’22 in various categories

Mumbai: TV Today Network has won a total of 37 awards at the recently held News Television (NT) Awards in a glittering ceremony, which took place in Delhi on 10 June.

The media group’s flagship news channels Aaj Tak and India Today TV won across the most coveted categories. Good News Today, the newest channel from India Today Group also bagged awards under the categories of ‘Best Animated Show by a News Channel’ and the ‘Daily News Bulletin’. The group’s digital properties namely aajtak.in and indiatoday.in also won big accolades at the NT Awards.

The detailed list for this year’s NT awards 2022 won by TV Today Network is as follows:

June 11, 2022
India Today TV Tops The BARC English News Channel Ratings

MUMBAI: On every big news week, viewers place their unwavering trust in India Today TV and the numbers are a testimony to this. On Week4 of this year, The channel has surpassed Times Now and Republic TV, becoming the clear no.1(15+, Megacities, 06:00 -24:00 hrs). This is significant because the week was full of news events like the Delhi elections, Shaheen Bagh protests and the bi annual ‘Mood if the Nation Survey'.

Data analytics and ground zero reporting have garnered the trust of the viewers and made india Today the credible choice on every major news week.

In current big news week, India Today TV besides being the leader in full week data , was also a leader on 26th January in the elite English core audience of NCCS A across mega cities.

February 7, 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
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
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

Aaj Tak grabs 19% market share during election coverage

MUMBAI: Aaj Tak has acquired 19 per cent of Hindi News channel market share on counting day of Maharashtra and Haryana state assembly elections 2019. The channel was ahead with 27 million more impressions than the next channel.

The data released by BARC is evident in how the viewers continue to prefer the India Today Group when it comes to 360-degree election coverage.

The India Today Group’s Axis My India exit poll, accurately predicted the outcome of the State Assembly Elections in Maharashtra and Haryana, while most other media outlets faltered. On-the-ground reporting, accurate exit polls prediction and the use of state-of-the-art tools for election coverage on a large scale led the group to the No.1 position.

On the counting day, Aaj Tak’s share was 19 per cent of all 14 Hindi news channels, placing it on the topmost rung of the ladder when it comes to viewership. India’s most-watched Hindi news channel, Aaj Tak, was 27 million gross impressions ahead of ABP News that held the No.2 position. During the hours when the votes were being counted, Aaj Tak’s viewership surpassed that of other TV channels like Sony TV, Zee TV and Colors.

(Source – BARC, TG- 15+, Market – HSM, Time Band – 8:00 to 18:00 hrs). In the 15+ M AB TG, Aaj Tak was the No.1 TV Channel in HSM Market(Source – BARC, Market – HSM, Time Band – 8:00 to 18:00 hrs)

Channel	WK43'19
Aaj Tak	126137
ABP News	98751
India TV	95809
News18 India	95468
Zee News	89434
Republic Bharat	84704
News Nation	53842
News 24	41856
TV9 Bharatvarsh	41572
Tez	36388
India News	26974
NDTV India	19771
Zee Hindustan	19629
DD News	8552

*Source – BARC, 15+, HSM, G Imp’000

Channel	Shr%
Aaj Tak	19.0
ABP News	16.0
NDTV India	2.0
News 24	6.0
News Nation	5.0
Zee News	10.0
India TV	11.0
India News	3.0
DD News	1.0
Tez	3.0
News18 India	10.0
Zee Hindustan	3.0
Republic Bharat	9.0
TV9 Bharatvarsh	4.0

*Source: BARC, TG: 15+ NCCS ALL, Mkt: HSM, Period: 24^th Oct’19, TB:0800-2400Hrs, Market shr% based on 14 Hindi News Channels.

India Today TV was also on the No.1 position in the English news genre, surpassing channels like Times Now, Republic TV, NDTV 24×7 among others. On the polling day and the counting day combined, it recorded the highest number of gross impressions in all the megacities of India.

Channel	Gross Imp'000s
India Today Television	109
Times Now	101
Republic	90
NDTV 24×7	34
CNN News 18	25
Mirror Now	15
Wion	4
India Ahead	1
News X	0

*Source : BARC, Market: Megacities, TG: Males 22+AB,Dates: 21st Oct'19 & 24th Oct'19,Gross imp'000s.

India Today TV increased its viewership by 149.6 per cent compared to the previous week.

Channel	WK42'19	WK43'19	Growth Compare to last week
India Today Television	87	218	149.6%
Times Now	152	219	44.5%
Republic TV	158	227	43.9%
CNN News18	43	60	40.0%
NDTV 24×7	45	58	29.5%
Mirror Now	50	47	-5.8%
Wion	38	22	-42.6%
India Ahead	4	10	133.7%
News X	8	2	-74.5%

*Source – BARC, 22+ M AB, Period as per below table, Gimp’000)

It may be recalled that during the General Elections in May 2019, the picture was not very different. Aaj Tak and the India Today TV ruled the poll viewership, with 13 crore viewers tuning into Aaj Tak on the counting day alone (Universe, All India, Counting Day) and being the most watched channel across genres. India Today TV had not only beaten the other English news channels but also recorded a viewership that was higher than other English infotainment and entertainment channels (NCCS A, Megacities, Counting Day).

November 5, 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

Aaj Tak and India Today TV emerge as top scorers on Budget Day

MUMBAI: Aaj Tak and India Today TV, the Hindi and English news channels of India Today Group were the Budget Day’s most preferred news destinations, perched pretty well atop the news viewership table.

The 2019 budget presented by the Indian Government on 5th July had millions tuned in. Throughout the reporting of the budget, India Today TV and Aaj Tak helped all sections of the populace decipher the various complexities of the budget, and delivered key insights regarding the state of the country’s economy.

Here’s how Aaj Tak fared during budget hours compared to other networks:

Channel	Gross Impressions (0000s)
Aaj Tak	3698
Zee News	2149
ABP News	2148
India TV	2125
News18 India	1091

* Source – BARC, 15+ NCCS ALL, Time Band – 11:00 – 14:00, period – 5th July 2019, Market – HSM

Through their decades of experience, the most respected and popular journalists of the country delivered comprehensive facts and insights on the budget on both India Today TV and Aaj Tak, and political experts on these platforms drilled down several vital aspects of the policies announced. With this impeccable reputation behind them, both Aaj Tak and India Today TV established themselves as the No.1 news destinations on Budget Day.

Here’s how India Today TV fared compared to other channels:

Budget Day		Budget Hours
Channel	Impressions'000 {Sum}	Channel	Impressions'000 {Sum}
India Today TV	45.1	India Today TV	27.6
Times Now	35.5	Republic TV	4.3
Republic TV	28.2	Times Now	3.5
Mirror Now	22.7	Mirror Now	2.0
NDTV 24×7	18.1	NDTV 24×7	0.4
CNN News18	9.2	CNN News18	0.1

Source for Budget Hours: BARC, Mkt: Mega Cities, Time Band: 1100-1300hrs TG: 22+ M AB, Period: 5th July’19, G’Imp’000

With a resounding victory on budget day, both the channels have established themselves as the bastions of solid reporting and the gold standard in their respective genre.

July 12, 2019