ITV

Tag: India Today

  • Manoj Jagyasi elevated to Zee Media executive cluster head-sales

    Manoj Jagyasi elevated to Zee Media executive cluster head-sales

    NEW DELHI: Zee Media Corporation Ltd has elevated Manoj Jagyasi as executive cluster head-sales where he will be responsible for aligning the topline responsibilities with bottom numbers of cluster news channels under Zee Media.

    Jagyasi was earlier working as the executive cluster head–revenue for Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd for the past one year. 

    In his expanded role, he will be working on co-creation of content along with keeping news value intact for better monetization opportunities for revenue teams and will also be closely working with the management team from across all verticals, in order to build a future-ready model of digital + television. 

    Jagyasi carries more than 13 years of experience in business development and sales, across industries – television, radio, internet, and FMCG and has been associated with brands like Zee Unimedia Ltd, ETV News Network at TV 18, iTV Network–India News, HUL, and India Today. 

  • India Today suspends print publication Mail Today; turns digital

    India Today suspends print publication Mail Today; turns digital

    NEW DELHI: Most newspapers in India are facing an uphill task to maintain their readership amidst the pandemic. India Today too faced the burn. The group announced that its English language tabloid Mail Today will suspend its print publication with effect from 10 August 2020. The reason stated is that the print segment has been hit due to the pandemic but the content shall continue to be published in the digital format.

    The BSE filing read that the newspaper Mail Today comprises an insignificant portion of the business of the company. Mail Today newspaper in its physical mode contributed less than two per cent to the total revenues of the company during the quarter ended 30 June 2020, therefore, the said the suspension shall not have any material impact on overall business of the company.

    Last year, India Today’s opinion website DailyO got shut and it was reported that many employees lost their jobs. 

  • In week 35, Arnab Goswami rules the Indian news waves

    In week 35, Arnab Goswami rules the Indian news waves

    BENGALORE: The Arnab Goswami led English News channel Republic TV and Hindi News channel Republic Bharat both topped the news genre in their respective languages in Week 35 (Saturday, 29 August 2020 to Friday, 4 September 2020, week or period under review) based on Broadcast Audience Research Council of India weekly data put up in the public domain. And based on the breakup of rural and urban markets, Republic Bharat was the most watched news channel in both markets.

    The News genre has been losing viewership steam that it had gained during the COVID2019 weeks. It was the Republic Network that first questioned the conclusion of suicide arrived at by the Mumbai Police without any preliminary investigations or autopsy on Rajput. The coverage of the shenanigans of the Maharashtra chief minister Thakerey’s party members over the issue as well as utterances by the ruling Shiv Sena’s authorised spokesperson Sanjay Raut against Kangana Ranaut, a female Indian actor only helped boosting Republic TV and Republic Bharat viewership. Has Thakerey bitten off more than he can chew?

    Read our coverage on Arnab Goswami

    BARC data for top 5 English News channels for week 35 of 2020 shows that Republic TV led its genre by far with 6.563 million weekly impressions. Following far behind at rank 2 was Times Now with just about one third the ratings at 2.194 million weekly impressions. At rank 3 in Week 35 of 2020 was CNN News18 with 1.505 million weekly impressions. DD India at rank 4 garnered 1.405 million weekly impressions followed by India Today Television with 1.381 million weekly impressions at rank 5.

    According to a Tweet, that has not been verified by www.indiantelevision.com , Republic TV had an all-time band market share of 51.40 percent in week 35 of 2020. In the case of week days in the time band of 2100 to 2300 hours Republic TV had a market share of 60.28 percent.

    As mentioned above, Republic Bharat led the Hindi News genres in the combined as well as the individual urban and rural Hindi speaking markets – HSM (U+R), HSM (U), HSM (R).

    Read our coverage on BARC

    Republic Bharat scored 287.062 million weekly impressions in HSM (U+R) in Week 35 of 2020, about 45 percent more than the India Today group’s flagship Hindi News channel Aaj Tak which was ranked 2 with 198.245 million weekly impressions. At rank 3, was TV9 Bharatvarsh with 168.764 million closely followed by India TV at fourth rank with 165.444 million weekly impressions. At fifth rank in HSM (U+R) was News18 India with 134.583 million weekly impressions.

    In HSM (U), Republic Bharat led with 168.824 million weekly impressions followed by Aaj Tak with 110.739 million weekly impressions at second place in Week 35 of 2020. At rank 3 was India TV with 99.544 million weekly impressions while at the fourth place was TV9 Bharatvarsh with 90.901 million weekly impressions. At fifth rank was News18 India with 82.699 million weekly impressions in week 35 of 2020 in HSM (U).

    In HSM (R), Republic was ranked first with 118.328 million weekly impressions in Week 35 of 2020. Aaj Tak was ranked second with 87.507 million weekly impressions followed by TV9 Bharatvarsh with 77.863 million weekly impressions. India TV was ranked fourth with 65.900 million weekly impressions. At rank 5 was News18 India with 51.884 million weekly impressions in the HSM (R) in Week 35 of 2020.

  • India Today Group to host e-Sahitya AajTak from 22-24 May

    India Today Group to host e-Sahitya AajTak from 22-24 May

    MUMBAI: Riding on the overwhelming response received by the recent digital versions of ‘Agenda AajTak’, the channel is now back with its specially curated e-version of ‘Sahitya AajTak’ from 22 -24  May . The flagship literature festival of the India Today Group will showcase unique conversations with prominent celebrities, singers, lyricists, writers, columnists and other distinguished personalities with rich insights on real life anecdotes and challenges arising out of the Corona virus crisis. e-Sahitya AajTak is a successful reinvention of an otherwise on-ground event not possible currently due to the nationwide lockdown. e-Sahitya AajTak will have over 28 speakers and 25 power-packed sessions over three days. 

    The e-literature fest promises to bring together a confluence of the greatest names in literature and the performing arts to express their views openly and engage in a meaningful dialogue. The big attractions of the three day event are Anup Jalota, Javed Akhtar, Hans Raj Hans, Surendra Sharma, Prasoon Joshi, Amish Tripathi, Ashok Vajpeyi, Swanand Kirkire, Chitra Mudgal, Manoj Muntashir, Javed Ali, Ashok Chakradhar, Asghar Wajahat, Piyush Mishra, Maithili Thakur, Chetan Bhagat, Neeraj Pandey, Manoj Tiwari, Dinesh Lal Yadav (Nirahua), B Praak, Saloni Gaur, Cheshta Saxena along with the celebrated star cast from Ramayana and Mahabharata.

     AajTak recently hosted several editions of Indian heartland’s biggest thought leadership summit ‘Agenda AajTak’ in the forms of ‘e-Agenda AajTak’. The summits were power packed events with a plethora of leaders on one common platform, deliberating on the present issues faced by the world’s largest democracy.

    Innovations, like being the first Indian News channel to use drone camera for active news coverage, interviews on teleportation, implementation of the latest technologies in news delivery, besides a slew of new programming initiatives, exclusive interviews and Industry first events have kept the channel in pole position. India’s most watched and No.1 news channel AajTak for last 20 years (Source – BARC/TAM, 15+, HSM, in terms of Market Share) has also been the No.1 TV Channel during Coronatimes with 36 Crore viewers (Source: BARC, Absolute Cumm Reach, 2+, All India, Week 12-19'20).
     

  • After a week’s gap, India Today reclaims top spot in megacities in BARC week 15

    After a week’s gap, India Today reclaims top spot in megacities in BARC week 15

    MUMBAI: Almost after a week’s gap, TV Today Network’s English news channel India Today has again become a most-watched channel in the megacities. The channel achieved this feat of being number one with 12 per cent in week 13 of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India.

    India Today has grown by around 30 per cent to 697,000 impressions in megacities among NCCS 22+ male AB in week 15 as compared to 351,000 impressions in the last week. However, the channel has clinched the second-best position in the all India NCCS 22 plus male AB category

    In 22 plus male AB category megacities, Republic TV stood at second position with growth by over 26 per cent to 617,000 impressions this week from 571,000 in the last week.

    Republic TV has been leading the chart in both India and megacities in terms of viewership in the two-plus category, according to BARC. In the same category, Times Now, at the third spot, has garnered 333, 000 impressions, followed by WION at the fourth position with 269,000 impressions

    The viewership of news channels has grown exponentially in recent weeks due to the COVID-19 situation. Moreover, except news, all other genres have stopped producing fresh content, which could be termed one of the reasons for the rise in the viewership of news broadcasters. 

  • Twitter banter between India Today and Republic TV on viewership

    Twitter banter between India Today and Republic TV on viewership

    MUMBAI: Every news channel wants to be number one, and it, of course, tries to find some metrics to declare itself as most-watched. This viewership battle has turned into a Twitter banter between two English news channels: India Today and Republic TV.

    The banter started with India Today mocking Republic TV for its ‘For The Record’ tag, wherein the latter has been boasting about its viewership gain for being a leader so far this year than its peers in all India males-22-plus-individuals’ category, as per BARC.

    India Today shared two promos on its Twitter handle with the caption ‘For The Record’. The first promo, which is a 21-second video, has a gramophone playing audio as similar to Republic TV’s editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami’s voice.

    The second promo is even more creative, wherein an image of a cracked gramophone disc, which also called as a record, is shown with Republic TV’s name below it. India Today mocking its rival praised itself with the tagline: ‘A news channel (India Today) that doesn’t sound like a broken record’.

    Retaliating to the mockery, Republic TV in its eighth part of ‘For The Record’ edition took a veiled dig at India Today quoting BARC’s data tweeted: “Republic requests SMALLER channels not to fudge numbers when BARC official data is available publicly.”

    The record being the keyword here, India Today tried to play with the word and portrayed Republic TV as ‘Broken Record’ in its promo. Post week 14 numbers were out, the former ran a campaign of it being the most-watched news channel with a tag line ‘Where It Matters’, it indirectly touted the latter with its viewership growth in megacities TG males between week 12- 14, as per BARC.

  • India Today becomes most-watched channel in megacities in week 13 of BARC

    India Today becomes most-watched channel in megacities in week 13 of BARC

    MUMBAI: For the first-ever time this year, India Today has become the most-watched channel in the megacities, clinching number one spot in week 13 of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India. The channel has secured second spot in the previous week in the same category.

    The channel has grown by over 12 per cent to 657,000 impressions in megacities among NCCS 22+ Male AB in week 13 as compared to 583,000 impressions in the last week. Republic TV has fallen by around 19 per cent to 619,000 impressions this week from 763,000 in the last week.

    Republic TV has been leading the chart in megacities in terms of viewership. However, India Today reaching a new high is something that was speculated considering last week’s stellar performance of the channel in terms of viewership.

    In the same category, Times Now, being at the third spot, garnered 386, 000 impressions, and CNN-News18 with 195,000 impressions has been ranked at the fourth position.

    The viewership of news channels has grown exponentially in recent weeks due to the COVID-19 situation. Moreover, except news, all other genres have stopped producing fresh content, which could be termed also one of the reasons for the rise in the viewership of news broadcasters.

  • News channels encash ‘taali bajao, thaali bajao’ initiative to gain more traction

    News channels encash ‘taali bajao, thaali bajao’ initiative to gain more traction

    MUMBAI: News channels across genre certainly tried to chance upon the opportunity to engage viewers during the ‘taali bajao, thaali bajao’ event. An initiative called by prime minister Narendra Modi as a tribute to the heroes, who are the vanguard of fighting against coronavirus.

    On 19 March, PM Modi urged citizens to voluntarily participate in the ‘Janta curfew’ from 7 am to 9 pm on 22 March to stop the spread of novel coronavirus. He also urged people to send a tribute to the doctors, nurses, and police, among others, on the same day at 5 pm by either clapping, banging utensils or ringing a bell from the balcony or at the doorstep.

    In this regard, news channels across genres, apart from broadcasting the people’s participation in the ‘taali bajao, thaali bajao’ initiative from various corners of India, also tried to engage with them proactively on social media as well as on live news channels of the network.

    TV Today Network’s news channels, both English and Hindi, urged viewers to make a video while participating in the ‘taali bajao, thaali bajao’ initiative with a hashtag #5baje5minute and send to the network which will be shown on their channels.

    According to India Today, the group had asked citizens to send videos of what they did to express gratitude for thousands of those fighting against Coronavirus across the country. Selected videos were broadcast on both India Today and AajTak.

    “The campaign — #5baje5minute – become a massive hit as the network received one lakh videos on the WhatsApp numbers shared while announcing the campaign. Meanwhile, the hashtag has also witnessed over 1.87 lakh tweets with a reach to at least 26 million people,” said a channel spokesperson.

    Times Network’s president – strategy and business head – English entertainment cluster, Vivek Srivastava says: “The network also ably supported PM’s fervent appeal for a ‘Janta Curfew’ call on 22 March, 2020 by running a pledge campaign on news brands to mobilise awareness and participation from the viewers by sending in their video messages supporting the initiative.”

    “India TV has also run two successful social media campaigns so far, the first one was to ask people to support ‘Janta Curfew’, a call by PM Narendra Modi and the second one was to answer common queries of the people getting anxious due to a huge influx of information, attempting to debunk the myths surrounding the issue”, says India TV marketing manager Aruna Jamwal.

    Meanwhile, all other network channels such as ABP News Network, New Delhi Television, Zee News, Republic Media Network and Network18, among others, opted for traditional methods to grab eyeballs during the ‘taali bajao, thaali bajao’ initiative. The difference all these channels had were the visuals of people participating in the initiative shown on the TV screen.

    At least half a dozen reporters of respective news channels were stationed at various prominent locations to speak to the people supporting PM Modi’s call. The channels also showed the visuals of politicians, ministers and Bollywood actors participating in an initiative called by PM Modi.

  • Hindi news channels viewership increases by 14 per cent in week 6 of BARC

    Hindi news channels viewership increases by 14 per cent in week 6 of BARC

    MUMBAI: Delhi Legislative Assembly election has proved to be most fruitful for the news channels across genres. However, Hindi news broadcasters’ viewership has substantially grown by over 14 per cent in week six as compared to week five, according to the data published by Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC).

    One of the reasons behind the growth of viewership was the recently concluded Delhi elections. The polling was done on 8 February and the results of the same were declared on 11 February. Delhiites gave the mandate to Aam Aami Party, which garnered as many as 62 seats in 70-member Assembly.

    TV Today Network’s Hindi news channel Aaj Tak has continued to be the leader with the first spot in the top five channels list in the genre. The channel’s viewership grew by around 25 per cent to 146178 weekly impressions in week six as compared to 117478 impressions in week 5 of BARC. The channel also continued to maintain its dominance in both rural and urban segment viewership.

    Outperfoming all its peers, ABP News Network’s Hindi news channel ABP News has given a tough fight to all other four channels in the list, including Aaj Tak. The channel, grabbing the second position, has improved its viewership count substantially by 24 per cent to 108032 impressions in week six as against 87015 impressions in week five. The channel was at the fifth position in week five of BARC.

    Retaining its position at number three, News18 India, a Hindi news channel of Network18, grew by around 7 per cent to 101566 impressions in week six as compared to 95139 impressions in week five. Similarly, India TV maintaining its stance at fourth position grew by over 12 per cent to 99324 weekly impressions in week six compared previous week to 88477 impressions in week five.

    Meanwhile, the Zee Entertainment Enterprises’ Hindi news channel Zee News has fallen to the fifth position from second and has seen a marginal increase of viewership growth by 1 per cent to 98564 impressions in week six as compared to 97652 weekly impressions in week five of BARC.

    Despite being the biggest financial event in the country – Budget 2020, the viewership of news channels across genre, except business news channels, had slowed down by 20 per cent in week 5 (1-7 February) as compared to the previous week, BARC data had mentioned on its website.

    The rise in the viewership of channels growth in week six has pointed out that the audience is more inclined towards political developments than financial happenings in the country. The current data has reversed all negatives posted in week five as compared to the current week as per BARC.

  • All news channels, except biz news, see viewership slump in BARC week 5

    All news channels, except biz news, see viewership slump in BARC week 5

    MUMBAI: Despite the biggest financial event in the country – Budget 2020, the viewership of news channels of across genre, except business news channels, slowed down in week 5 (1-7 February) as compared to week 4, according to the data released by Broadcasting Audience Research Council India.

    Week 4 (25-31 January) had seen many national importance events such as Republic Day, Delhi Assembly poll campaigns, pre-budget preparation, and Shaheen Bagh firing. The news channels across genre had buzzing news information almost every day during week 4 of BARC.

    Hindi News

    The TV Today Group’s Hindi news channel Aaj Tak, leading the race in the viewership in the Hindi category, has retained its position at the top among peers. However, the viewership of the channel has dropped by 12.3 per cent to 117478 weekly impressions in week 5 as against 133942 in week 4.

    In week 5, news channels had no major or national importance event except budget 2020. However, the Delhi poll campaign being one of the buzzing events was concluded by the evening of 6 February as per the model code of conduct of Election Commission of India.

    Not just Aaj Tak, in the Hindi news segment, all other channels featured in the list of the week 5 saw a slump in viewership pattern as against week 4’s viewership. Zee News maintaining its second spot in the list of week 5 fell by 8 per cent to 97652 weekly impressions as compared to 106097 impressions in week 4.

    Moreover, News18 India, which also retained its spot on the third position, saw a drop by 5.2 per cent to 95139 weekly impressions in week 5 versus 100395 impressions in week 4. Whereas India TV maintaining its fourth position but fell by 3.3 per cent to 88477 weekly impressions as compared to 91481 weekly impressions in week 4.

    Replacing Republic Bharat, ABP News has bagged the fifth spot in the list of week 5 with weekly impressions of 87015. However, Republic Bharat tried to clinch a fifth spot in the urban segment of Hindi news channel with 51613 weekly impressions in week 5.

    English News

    In the English news category, Republic TV has maintained its lead in week 5, however, it slumped by over 12.5 per cent to 654 weekly impressions as compared to 749 impressions in week 4. Despite out throwing DD India from second spot, Times Now has also dropped by 3.3 per cent to 515 weekly impressions in week 5 compared to 534 impressions in week 4.

    Meanwhile, India Today Television, taking Times Now last week’s spot, has dropped by 17.7 per cent to 303 weekly impressions in week 5 versus 368 impressions in week 4. Moreover, DD India falling to fourth position this week has substantially dropped by 74.6 per cent to 181 weekly impressions in week 5 as against 713 impressions in week 4.

    DD India, a government-owned news broadcaster, was able to gain exponential impressions in week 4 due to 71st Republic Day event, which was authorised to show the exclusive footage of the event and also share it with other news channels by giving give courtesy to DD India.

    Similarly, CNN News18 maintaining its position at the last spot but also fell substantially by over 30 per cent to 163 weekly impressions in week 5 as compared to 237 weekly impressions in week 4.

    Business News

    Budget being the most important event for the business news channels, Both CNBC TV18 of Network18 group and ET Now of Times News Network, in the English category, grew by over 100 per cent to 727 and 266 weekly impressions in week 5 respectively. CNBC TV18, leading between the two, had garnered 275 weekly impressions and ET had achieved 123 weekly impressions in week 4.

    Similarly, in the Hindi business news category, Both CNBC Awaaz and Zee Business grew by 21 per cent and 41 per cent respectively. The former garnered 2492 weekly impressions, whereas the latter settled at 2131 impressions in week 5 as compared to 1965 and 1249 impressions in week 4 respectively.