Tag: News

IPL 13 grows and grabs television viewership

BENGALURU: Live telecast of the Indian Premier League (IPL) must seem an abomination for competitors’ networks. Year in and year out, the period during which the cricketing bonanza is played, all genres and competing sports networks have seen viewership numbers dip as Indians tuned into the channels of the network that aired the event live – the network being Star India in this edition of IPL or IPL 2020 or IPL13 as it is known. The Covid2019 pandemic delayed IPL by around five to six months. In a normal year, IPL commences around the end of March or at the beginning of April every year and runs for about six weeks or so. The event this year clashes with flagship programmes such as the twelfth season of Hindi Kaun Banega Crorepati hosted by Bollywood doyen Amitabh Bachchan and with the initial weeks of the Salman Khan hosted fourteenth edition of the Hindi Bigg Boss. This paper comes with a caveat – the conclusions in it are based on BARC weekly data of the top 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10 channels/programmes of various genres in different languages/platfroms in the public domain.

Week 38 of 2020 (Saturday,19 September 2020 to Friday, 25 September 2020, week or period under review) saw television viewership climb 2.4 percent to 17.0 billion weekly impressions from 16.5 billion weekly impressions reported for the previous week according to Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) data published in the public domain. Viewership in week 38 of 2020 was 15.1 percent higher than the pre-Covid2019 average of 14.77 billion weekly impressions. Ratings watchdogs BARC and Nielsen have standardized the average data for weeks 02 and 04 2020 as the pre-Covid2019 average. As is obvious from the figure below, television viewership had started declining from week 34 of 2020. IPL 13 week saw viewership growth.

BARC weekly list of the Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across genres saw Star Sports 1 Hindi catupult into it, and that too at rank 1. Though the combined ratings of the Top 10 Channels in this list grew 5.8 percent to 8,322.475 billion weekly impressions in week 38 of 2020 from 7,863.577 billion weekly impressions in the previous week, seven of the channels in the list saw a decline in viewership. Two channels exited the list in week 38 of 2020. Star Sports 1 Hindi entered the list as mentioned above at rank 1 with 1,247.407 billion weekly impressions. It must be noted that Star India is airing IPL 13 on Star Sports 1, Star Sports 1 HD, Star Sports 2, Star Sports 2 HD, Star Sports 1 Hindi and Star Sports 1 Hindi HD TV channels as well as live streaming on the Disney+ Hotstar digital platform.

Read more news on IPL

Analysis of BARC data in the public domain of the top 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10 channels of various genres in different languages/platfroms for week 38 of 2020 reveals that the top channale of all major genres such as GECs’, news, movies and kids saw ratings dip. According to BARC-Nielsen reports these four genres garnered around 90 percent of television viewership. BARC data shows that combined impressions data for the Top 5 Sports channels grew 8.6 times to 1,734.956 billion weekly impressions in week 38 of 2020 from 201.549 billion weekly impressions in the previous week. It is quite obvious that the sports genre has helped television viewership grow, while at the same time has eaten into viewership of other genres/sub-genres across platforms – be they pay or free or combined free and pay.

Top 10 Channels on All Platforms, Pay Platform and Free Platform Across Genres

The Star India Network pulled viewership eyeballs with five channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels on All Plaform Across Genres in week 38 of 2020. There were two channels from Sony Pictures Network (SPN) and one channel each from Enterr10 Television, Sun Tv Network and Zee Entertainment Enterrpises Limited (Zeel) besides those of Star India in the top 10 weekly list for the week under review.Two channels, Viacom18’s Hindi GEC Colors Rishtey and Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV exited the list and were replaced by Star Sports 1 Hindi and Star India’s flagship Tamil GEC Star Vijay. There were six Hindi GEC channels, two Tamil channels and one channel each from the sports and the Telugu genres in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres.

BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres also was dominated by Star India channels – there were four of them. Besides, there were 3 channels from Zeel and one channel each from SPN, Sun Tv Network and Viacom18. While the combined weekly impressions of the Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres increased 10 percent to 7,285.986 billion weekly impressions in week 38 of 2020 from 6,624.357 billion weekly impressions in week 37 of 2020, five of the channels saw week-on-week (w-o-w) decline in weekly impressions. One channel – Star India’s flagship Bangla channel Star Jalsha exited the list in week 38 of 2020 and was replaced by Star Sports 1 Hindi. There were four Hindi GECs’, three Tamil channels, two Telugu channels and one Sports channel in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Pay channels Across Genres.

BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in week 38 of 2020 had the same line up of channels in the same order as in the previous week. However, the combined weekly impressions of the 10 channels in week 38 of 2020 declined 1.5 per cent to 3,535.728 billion weekly impressions from 3,588.256 billion weekly impressions in week 37. Six of the channels in the list saw viewership decline, while four saw viewership increase. Six of the channels were Hindi GECs’ while four were Hindi Movies channels. There were three channels from Zeel, two channels from Viacom18, and one channel each from B4U Network, Enterr10 Television, Goldmine Telefilms, Star India and SPN in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in week 38 of 2020.

Please refer to the chart below:

October 7, 2020
Network18 makes key changes in editorial leadership

New Delhi: Network18 has made key changes in its editorial leadership, with Karthik Subbaraman being tapped as managing editor of the network’s digital news operations and Vivek Narayan stepping into Subbaraman’s shoes.

While Subbaraman has been given a new role at the network, Narayan has been appointed. The latter was last serving as the executive editor and head of output at Times Now.

Both Subbaraman and Narayan will report to Santosh Menon, the network’s chief content officer. The announcements come amid an incremental growth of the network’s audience base and market dynamics.

Narayan will oversee news channels in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. He started his career as a reporter at Network Television in Thiruvananthapuram in 1994 before moving on to stints at Asia Pacific communication and Eenadu TV in New Delhi. He then worked at the TV Today Network in Delhi and Kerala for five years, until 2005.

Subbaraman has been with the network for nearly four years as the editor overseeing three southern channels. A consummate news hound, Subbaraman has expertise across genres spanning general news, business, tech/start-ups and international relations. In his new role, he will supervise the editorial operations of all Network18’s digital properties, with the editors of News18 (English, Hindi and languages), Firstpost, Moneycontrol, cnbcv18.com and the central digital videos team reporting to him.

October 2, 2020
Non-Hindi channels continue to dominate top 10 pay channels across genres

BENGALURU: As the progress in the Sushant Singh Rajput case seemingly tapered off, the news genre lost some of its sheen in terms of weekly impressions in Week 37 of 2020 (Saturday 12 Sep 2020 to Friday 18 Sep 2020, week or period under review). Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) data for top five Hindi, English, Assamese, Bangla, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Tamil and Telugu channels reveals that the top news channels lost viewership in Week 37 of 2020 as compared to the previous week (Week 36 of 2020). At the same time, overall television viewership in Week 37 of 2020 at 16.6 billion weekly impressions was just a fraction higher than the 16.5 billion weekly impressions in Week 36. BARC data for the top 10 Hindi GEC channels, top four Assamese channels and top five Bangla, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu channels for the week under review shows that viewership of most of these genre/sub-genres in respective platforms and markets increased to contribute to the small increase in overall viewership. The top five channels of English entertainment channels, infotainment, lifestyle, English & Hindi movies, music, sports and top four youth channels also saw viewership in terms of weekly impressions grow.

Top 10 Channels on All Platforms, Pay Platform and Free Platform Across Genres

BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels on all platforms across genres saw the combined weekly impressions in Week 37 of 2020 increase as compared to the previous week. Nine of the channels in the All Platforms channels list were the same with a slight shuffling of ranks as in the previous week. One Telugu channel from the Zee Entertainment Enterprises (Zeel) stable exited the list in week 37 of 2020 to be replaced by its sister channel and Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV at rank 10. There were eight Hindi GECs and one channel each from the Tamil and the Telugu genres in the list. There were three channels from Star India, two channels from Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and Zeel and one channel each from Enterr10 Television, Sun Tv Network and Viacom18 in BARC’s Weekly list of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres in Week 37 of 2020.

Read more news on BARC

BARC’s Weekly list of top 10 pay channels across genres was dominated by two south Indian language channels – three from the Tamil genre, two channels from the Telugu genres and one from the Bangla genre along with four Hindi GECs. There were four channels from Star India, three channels from Zeel, one channel each from SPN, Sun Tv Network and Viacom18. One channel exited the list in Week 37 of 2020 – the Viacom18 associated ETV Telugu which was replaced by Star India’s flagship Banga GEC Star Jalsha at rank 10.

All the 10 channels in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 free channels in Week 37 of 2020 were the same as in the previous in the same rank order. Six of the channels were Hindi GECs’ while four were Hindi Movies channels. There were three channels from Zeel, two channels from Viacom18, and one channel each from B4U Network, Enterr10 Television, Goldmine Telefilms, Star India and SPN.

Please refer to the table below:

September 30, 2020
News18 India unveils special festive programming with ‘Shri Ram Roop’

NEW DELHI: As people gear up for the upcoming festive season in the midst of the global pandemic, News18 India has lined up special programming ‘Shri Ram Roop’ to usher in the festivities and spread cheer. The special series will keep the viewers positively engaged and entertained by narrating untold tales and mystic legends associated with Lord Ram.

Anchored by News18 India managing editor Kishore Ajwani, the special line-up will take the viewers on an enthralling journey with each episode showcasing numerous sides of Shri Ram and many age-old tales for the first time on television. Shot in documentary style, the series will travel the length and breadth of the country to bring to life innumerable stories associated with Shri Ram. Special shows such as Ram Lalla and Ram ka Yodha Roop will capture Shri Ram’s childhood, his upbringing & education and his valiant encounters with rakshasas, respectively. The latter will also showcase locations in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh where such battles took place. The series will also follow his encounters with his most devout followers such as Hanuman, Sugriv’s Vanar Sena and Shabri amongst others in Bhakton ke Ram; and visiting historical sites such as Nasik and Rameshwaram where celebrated temples of Shiva were constructed by Shri Ram, in Shiv Bhakt Ram.

The concluding episode of the series will take viewers to Orchha where it is believed Lord Ram’s coronation took place 500 years ago by a local king. It will further showcase his virtuous rule as a king, while prominently featuring the famous Raja Ram temple in the city. Remembering the stories associated with these places, the show promises to present a gripping narrative that will be both informative and engaging.

September 17, 2020
Star Plus most watched pay TV channel across genres in Week 35

BENGALURU: Star India’s Hindi GECs’ Star Plus and Star Utsav topped all the three across genres weekly lists published by Broadcast Audience Research Council of India in the public domain for Week 35 of 2020 (Saturday, 29 August 2020 to Friday, 4 September 2020, week or period under review). While Star Utsav topped BARC’s weekly lists of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres and Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres, flagship Hindi GEC Star Plus topped BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across genre during the period under review. Further, Star Plus was ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres.

Hindi GEC’s once again prop up Television Viewership

BARC data reveals that viewership in Week 35 and Week 34 was the same at 16.9 billion weekly impressions. Analysis of BARC data for the Top 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10 channels of genres/sub-genres/languages/ platforms in the public domain indicates that as in the case of Week 34, it was again Hindi GECs’ that propped up television viewership. The Top 5 Kids, Hindi and English Movies and News channels in 10 languages lost viewership in Week 35 of 2020 as compared to the previous week. Analysis of BARC data for the top 4, 5 or 10 GEC channels reveals that though GEC viewership climbed up slightly, GECs’ of most languages lost viewership, while the Hindi GEC genre, which is quite a large genre, gained viewership. To quite an extent, Hindi GECs’ helped maintain television viewership in terms of weekly impressions. It must be noted that Week 34 of 2020 had witnessed the largest drop on 0.7 billion weekly impressions from the 17.6 billion weekly impressions in Week 33 of 2020.

Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres

The Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres were all GECs’. Hindi GECs’ dominated the list in Week 35 of 2020. There were eight of them present in the Across Genres on All Platforms list in Week 35 of 2020. Besides the 8 Hindi GECs’, there was one channel each from the Tamil and Telugu genres. As mentioned above, Star India’s Hindi GEC Star Utsav continued heading BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres in Week 35 of 2020 for the fourth week in a row. As a matter of fact, 8 of the 10 channels in BARC’s Weekly list for Week 35 of 2020 were the same as in the previous week. Two Telugu channels from the weekly list for Week 34 0f 2020 exited and were replaced by two Hindi GECs’ in Week 35 of 2020. Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) flagship Kannada GEC and the Network18 (Viacom18) affiliated ETV Telugu exited and were replaced by Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV and Viacom18’s Hindi GEC Colors Rishtey.

There were 3 Star India channels, two channels each from Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and Zeel and one channel each from Enterr 10 Television, Sun TV Network (Sun TV) and Network18/Viacom18 in the list for Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres in Week 35 of 2020.

Please refer to the chart below:

Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres

Sun TV gave way to Star Plus which led BARC Weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres during the period under review. Nine of the 10 channels in BARC’s weekly list for Week 35 of 2020 were the same as in the previous week, but with some shuffling of ranks. Zee Kannada, exited the list and was replaced by Star India’s flagship Tamil GEC Star Vijay. BARC’s weekly list of Across genres pay channels was dominated by two South Indian languages GECs’ – there were six of them – three each from the Tamil and Telugu genres and four Hindi GECs’ in the list for Week 35 of 2020.

There were three channels each from Star India and Star India two channels from Network18/Viacom18 and one channel each from SPN and the Sun Tv Network in BARC’s weekly top pay channels list for Week 34 of 2020. Please refer to the chart below.

Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres

Star Utsav headed BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in Week 35 of 2020. All of the 10 channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in Week 35 of 2020 were the same as in Week 34 with only one shuffling ranks – Zeel’s Big Magic moved up one rank to eighth place and Viacom18’s Hindi Movies channel Rishtey Cineplex dropped a rank to ninth in Week 35 of 2020 as compared to Week 34.

There were three channels from Zeel, two channels from Viacom18 and one channel each from B4U Network, Enterr 10 Television, Goldmine Telefilms, SPN and Star India in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in Week 35 of 2020. There six Hindi GECs’ and four Hindi Movies channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in Week 35 of 2020. Please refer to the figure below:

September 16, 2020
Shiv Cable Sena asks cable operators to ban Republic channels in Maharashtra

KOLKATA: Amid rising political tension in Maharashtra, the Shiv Cable Sena, an affiliate to Shiv Sena, has asked the cable TV operators to ban Republic Media Network in the state.

According to reports, the Shiv Cable Sena has issued a letter which is signed by Sanjay Raut’s brother Sunil Raut. The letter sent to major operators claims that Republic has violated journalistic ethics and guidelines by repeatedly using the non-respectful language for CM Uddhav Thackeray, home minister and holding a ‘parallel court’.

Following the letter, the network has issued a statement. “This is an attack and an attempt to plunder the fourth pillar of democracy. the Shiv Sena wants us to squirm before them, they want to snatch our fundamental right to report. Under Article 19(1)A of the Constitution of India, Uddhav Thackeray, you have no right to do this. Our coverage speaks truth to power. The people of India did not stand for Emergency in 1975, and they will not stand for what the Sonia Sena is doing right now,” it said in a statement.

The network has also released a petition #CantBlockRepublic on Twitter "appealing to the people of India to come forward and join the fight for the right to report in a free democratic country."

September 12, 2020
Hindi channels prop up Top TV channels viewership as Star Utsav dominance continues

BENGALURU: Television viewership in terms of weekly impressions declined 3.98 percent in Week 34 of 2020 (Week 34: Saturday, 22 August 2020 to Friday, 28 August 2020, week or period under review) as compared to the immediate previous week 33. Per Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly data in the public domain, overall TV+OOH viewership in Week 34 of 2020 was 16.9 billion weekly impressions as compared to 17.6 billion weekly impressions in Week 33. After a steady increase since Unlock 1.0 (Week 22 of 2020), the drop of 0.7 billion impressions was the steepest one since the country opened up after the Covid2019 Lockdown that had commenced on 25 March 2020 or midweek in Week 13 of 2020. At that time, home-tied Indians turned to the easiest and most accessible medium for live news. Indians wanted to know more and more about the new pandemic that had forced most of the world to suddenly stop. Television viewership shot up to 20.9 billion impressions in Week 14 of 2020, with the News genre recording the largest growth, while GEC viewership slid down. Four genres – GEC, Movies, News and Kids are normally responsible for more than 90 percent of television viewership. The breakup for the COVID2019 average between Weeks 2 to 4 of 2020 was: GEC at 52 percent, Movies at 23 percent, and News and Kids at 7 percent each, or a combined total of 89 percent. The breakup of the combined total of 94 percent for these four genres in Week 13 of 2020 was GEC 40 percent, Movies 29 percent, News 18 percent and Kids 7 percent. It must be noted that overall television viewership had climbed up

Despite the drop in Week 34 of 2020, TV viewership based on weekly impressions in Week 34 of 2020 was 1.4 percent more than the average of Weeks 2 to 4 of 2020 of 14.8 billion weekly impressions. The current ratings agency BARC along with the older one Nielsen commenced editions of “Crisis Consumption – Impact Of COVID -19 On TV And Smartphone Behaviour Across India”. At the time of writing of this paper, eleven editions have been released by BARC-Nielsen. The ratings duo has standardized the average data for Weeks 2 to 4 of 2020 as a measure for television consumption trends. The author has also used the same yardstick to analyze television consumption trends of the Top channels based on BARC weekly data published each week in the public domain of the top 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 10 Television channels of each genre, sub-genre, language and/or platform in all-India or the respective market, The analysis of this paper is limited to that extent. Where required, data from the 11 editions released by BARC-Nielsen has been used. Though the percentages of share of consumption may differ from the numbers in the BARC-Nielsen reports and those arrived at by the author based on limited BARC data available in the public domain, BARCs’ historical conclusions generally conform with them. Please refer to the figure below for TV+OOH viewership data as per BARC Weekly data.

Viewership share of GECs’ has been growing post Week 22 of 2020 per the latest BARC-Nielsen report which included data for Week 33 of 2020. Week 22 of 2020 was when a number of genres started creating fresh content after UNLOCK 1.0 commenced. Viewership share of GECs’ was 52 percent of overall television in Week 33 of 2020 which is at par with the Pre-COVID2019 average (average of Weeks 2 to 4 of 2020). In Week 12 of 2020, it had plunged to an all-time low of 39 percent. The 11th edition of the BARC-Nielsen report that included data for Week 33 of 2020 revealed that the overall television viewership of 17.6 billion impressions was still 22 percent higher than the pre-COVID2019 viewership. The breakup of growth in viewership between the HSM and South in Week 33 of 2020 was 24 percent and 17 percent respectively.

Analysis of BARC data of the top 3, 4, 5 or 10 channels of different genres of GECs’ reveals that despite viewership of the top 56 unique GEC channels from multiple genres declining 0.7 percent in Week 34 of 2020 as compared to 54 unique GEC channels from multiple genres in Week 34, the ratings of top 16 Hindi GECs’ was flat (increased 0.1 percent) as compared to the previous week. The drop in viewership was mainly in the regional languages including South Indian languages GECs’.

Similarly, in the case of News channels, though ratings of 50 plus unique news channels in different language declined by more than 5 percent in Week 34 of 2020 as compared to Week 33, ratings of the Top 5 Hindi News channels during the same period increased by 4.2 percent as compared to 6 unique channels in Week 33 of 2020. Hence, it is the Hindi channels that have reduced the impact of the fall in overall viewership ratings in Week 34 of 2020 from the ratings of Week 33 of 2020.

The figure below shows viewership share of various genres. It must be noted that the number of unique channels in both weeks is not the same (184 in Week 33 and 183 in Week 34 of 2020), and hence the number of unique channels across genres/sub-genres/languages/platform in the chart below are not the same in some cases. The author has created a rough measure by using data for unique channels that figure in BARCs’ weekly lists of Top 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10 channels for the two weeks.

Top 10 Channels on All PlatformsAcross Genres

Star India’s Hindi GEC Star Utsav continued heading BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres in Week 34 of 2020 for the third week in a row. As a matter of fact, 9 of the 10 channels in BARC’s Weekly list for Week 34 of 2020 were the same and had almost the same ranks as in the previous week. The only small reshuffling in ranks was the exchange of ranks between Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) Hindi GEC Zee Anmol and Star India’s flagship Hindi GEC Star Plus. The latter moved up one place while the formed dropped one place to rank4. The other change was that Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV at rank 10 in Week 33 of 2020 exited the list during the period under review and was replaced by the Network18 (Viacom18) associated Telugu channel ETV Telugu.

Six Hindi GECs’, three Telugu channels and one Tamil channel made up BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres in Week 30 of 2020. There were 3 Star India channels, two channels each from Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and Zeel and one channel each from Enterr 10 Television, Sun TV Network (Sun TV) and Network18/Viacom18 in the list for Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres in Week 34 of 2020.

Please refer to the chart below:

Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres

Sun TV continued to lead BARC Weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres during the period under review. Nine of the 10 channels in BARC’s weekly list for Week 34 of 2020 were the same as in the previous week, but with some shuffling of ranks. Gemini TV, The Sun TV Network’s flagship Telugu GEC, exited the list and was replaced by Zeel’s flagship Kannada GEC Zee Kannada.

There were four channels from the Hindi GEC genre, three channels from the Telugu genre two channels from the Tamil genre and one channel Kannada genre in BARC weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres in Week 34 of 2020. There were three channels from Zeel, two channels each from Star India, Sun Tv Network and Network18/Viacom18 and one channel from SPN in BARC’s weekly top paychannels list for Week 34 of 2020. Please refer to the chart below.

Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres

Star Utsav headed BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in Week 34 of 2020. All of the 10 channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in Week 30 of 2020 were the same as in Week 29 with some shuffling of ranks

There were three channels from Zeel, two channels from Viacom18 and one channel each from B4U Network, Enterr 10 Television, Goldmine Telefilms, SPN and Star India in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in Week 30 of 2020. There six Hindi GECs’ and four Hindi Movies channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in Week 29 of 2020. Please refer to the figure below:

September 9, 2020
CINTAA comes out in support of actors, upholds dignity of women

MUMBAI: Cine And TV Artistes' Association (CINTAA) has released an official statement in support of the actors that are being attacked by news organisations. The statement read, “News Media, an integral part of the media and entertainment Industry has been outrageously vehement these last few weeks, in attacking men and women from the actor’s fraternity.”

According to CINTAA, news channels are treating actors as if they are participants and instigators in an alleged conspiracy around Sushant Singh Rajput’s death that has occupied headlines recently in the public domain.

The association feels it is important for news organisations to realize that one cannot function as a self-appointed judge, jury and executioner.

It read, “In an attempt to boost viewership ratings, the catastrophic repercussions are ignored. That itself is reason enough for all to seriously introspect and put an end to the ill-informed debates and personal opinions being voiced by all and sundry. Without prejudice, the Cine & TV Artists Association (CINTAA), which represents the actors Community for over six decades, thought it befitting to break its silence in retaliation to those who are out to defame and slander its members.”

CINTAA believes that till the time that the truth is not unearthed, a person's reputation should not be maligned, their livelihood should not be snatched away, their self-esteem should not be trampled upon and their integrity should not be questioned.

It also mentions that actors are cultural ambassadors of this nation and the country's core values are shared through them with the rest of the world.

Read the entire statement here:

“CINTAA is one of the strongest Unions in the Film Fraternity. Our ideology is truly secular and it fosters true brotherhood, no matter what caste, creed or religion any member belongs to. As the fifth largest member of the International Federation of Actors-Performers Union (FIA) our voices and statements are valued world over. For us it is heartening to say that many of our Actors have been a recipient of the Padma Shri/Padma Bhushan awards coupled with many National & International citations. We belong to an intelligent, respectful and educated class and our body of work in the world of Entertainment stands second to none, even in the Global Arena.”

Some members from the media and entertainment community are also members of parliament and to defame the whole community is far from acceptance. A retired Army officer who has stood on the Borders is an actor today. A nursing officer who rendered her services much beyond the call of her duty during these pandemic times is also an actor. In times of any national adversities the actors fraternity have stood shoulder to shoulder to mitigate miseries of people, be it financially, emotionally or otherwise.

CINTAA, very strongly advocates upholding the Dignity of all women and hence have put in place all the necessary checks and balances at the work spots. Any instances of disrespect to our female colleagues is a matter of serious concern and we do adopt taking the severest of actions and punishments to the offenders. Pertinent to add that the Me-too movement that emerged for sexual abuse has been very appropriate.

We, therefore reiterate, that the Industry for the larger part, is a safe haven and yes, we would be the first to acknowledge that like in any other sector, there may exist some bad elements and by recognising and weeding them out, we are constantly looking to improve ourselves.

However, stretching beyond one’s wildest imagination, the exuberance showcased by some anchors to capture eyeballs is outrageous and without any hard evidence. We deeply condemn such impetuous topics of debate that tarnishes the image of a whole community.

September 8, 2020
News affect GEC viewership in primetime slot across all languages, reveals BARC-Nielsen report

MUMBAI: As India moves back to normalcy, the share of general entertainment channel (GEC) viewership has started showing signs of recovery. The data provided by TV audience measurement body, Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) reveals that in the week 30-33, the total number of Hindi GEC viewers who watches news is 49 per cent, whereas 77 per cent of them watch movies. Movies have definitely impacted GEC viewership, especially in Bangla, Marathi, Kannada and Malayalam.

The report further says that in Week 33, total TV viewership recorded 1.08 trillion viewing minutes. The TV viewership has shown a consistent growth in the last 12 weeks. It was 22 per cent higher than pre-Covid2019 viewing. Also, the daily average reach is seven per cent higher than pre-Covid2019 time.

The data highlights that the primetime shows have shown consistent growth in the last 12 weeks with 3 per cent rise in both Hindi and Southern markets. However, non-primetime shows continue to operate at 44 per cent higher than pre-Covid2019 levels.

As far as the Southern GEC is concerned, the cumulative reach has not been affected during Covid2019.

August 28, 2020
Hindi and South Indian GECs drive television viewership up; Sun TV back on Top across genres

BENGALURU: Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) reported 1.73 percent growth in overall television impressions in week 30 of 2020 (Saturday, 25 July 2020 to Friday, 31 July 2020, week or period under review) to 17.6 billion weekly impressions from 17.3 billion weekly impressions in the previous week. This number is still 21.4 percent higher than the viewership of 14.5 billion impressions reported for week 4 of 2020.

BARC and Nielsen had set the average viewership data between weeks two and four of 2020 as the yardstick to measure television consumption trends during COVID-19 weeks. The author has considered week 4 of 2020 as the reference week here.

Viewership has been driven mainly by GECs after the series of UNLOCKs’ announced by the government and airing of new content created post UNLOCK. In week 30 of 2019, the growth drivers have been mainly South Indian channels and Hindi GECs. The analysis in this paper is limited to BARC data available in the public domain – the top 2,3,4,5 or 10 channels of the genre/sub-genre/language/platform/market. The unit of data released by BARC is impressions in thousands (000s). The channels in BARC’s weekly lists may vary week-on-week depending upon the viewership numbers in terms of weekly impressions each channel attracts.Conclusions by the author have been derived from this limited BARC data.

BARC data in the public domain for week 30 of 2020 reveals that the combined weekly impressions of the top 10 Hindi GECs on all platforms in the Hindi speaking urban and rural markets, HSM (U+R) increased 3.9 percent as compared to the previous week. Viewership of the top 5 channels of the four South Indian languages – Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu also increased 7.1percent, 2.1 percent, 13.5 percent and 1.3 percent respectively. BARC considers the Hindi speaking market as all India minus the markets where the four South Indian languages are predominantly used – these are Karnataka (Kannada), Malayalam (Kerala), Tamil (Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and Telugu (Andhra Pradesh or AP and Telangana). By itself, the South Indian market is a huge market in terms of television penetration, and among the four, Tamil and Telugu markets are big in terms of population and TV homes. After the various Hindi genres, BARC provided the most segmented but limited data for the four South Indian languages in the public domain. BARC provides data for the Top 5 News channels in Hindi, the four South Indian languages and English in the public domain.

The other regional languages for which BARC releases limited data in the public domain are Assamese, Bangla, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Marathi, Oriya and Panjabi. BARC provides data for the top channels in each of these languages – these could be GECs or News or Movies, as also separate data for the Top 5 News channels in Assamese, Bangla, Oriya and Marathi. week 30 of 2020 saw viewership of Top 5 channels of Assamese, Bangla, Gujarati and Marathi grow 9.4 percent, 4.1 percent, 2.2 percent and 6.2 percent respectively. Combined viewership of the Top 5 Bhojpuri, Oriya and Panjabi channels in week 30 of 2020 fell 4.9 percent, 0.03 percent and 4.9 percent respectively as compared to the previous week.

According to BARC data, GECs, movies, news and kids genres in that order garner around 90 percent of overall television viewership. GEC is the largest genre with about 45 percent of overall television viewership, with movies garnering between 23 to 27 percent of the viewership and the Kids genre about 7-8 percent. Post Covid2019, UNLOCK, the News genres has been garnering around 15 percent of television viewership.

Viewership of the Top 5 Hindi movie channels in HSM (U+R) on all platforms increased by 0.1 percent in week 30 of 2020 as compared to week 29. The Top 5 kids channels saw combined weekly impressions grow 2.6 percent during the week under review as compared to week 29 of 2020.

The Top 5 Hindi news channels in HSM (U+R) and the Top 5 English Nnews channels saw weekly impressions increase 3.7 percent and 12.4 percent respectively. The English news genre is a small sub-genre in terms of viewership.

Combined viewership of the Top 5 Assamese, Bangla, Marathi and Oriya news channels declined 9.9 percent, 4.3 percent, 6.6 percent and 0.03 percent respectively as compared to week 29. The Top 5 Kannada, Malayalam and Telugu news channels witnessed viewership dips of 18.4 percent, 2.5 percent and 3.9 percent respectively, while the Top 5 Tamil news channels saw weekly impressions increase of 7.2 percent in week 30 of 2020 as compared to week 29.

Hence overall viewership in terms of weekly impressions was driven mainly by Hindi GECs and channels in the four South Indian languages, with some help from the other three major television genres.

Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres

The Sun Tv Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV regained top spot as the most watched channel on all platforms across genres after a hiatus. All the 10 channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres in week 30 of 2020 were the same as in the previous week, with some shuffling of ranks.

Seven Hindi GECs, two Telugu channels and one Tamil channel made up BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres in week 30 of 2020. There were 3 Star India channels, two channels each from Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) and one channel each from Enterr 10 Television, Sun TV Network (Sun TV) and Viacom18 in the list for Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres in week 30 of 2020.

Please refer to the table below:

Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres

Nine of the channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres in week 30 of 2020 were the same as in week 29. One Star India Hindi movies channel at rank 10 – Star Gold exited the list in week 30 to be replaced by another Star India channel – Tamil GEC Star Vijay at the same rank (rank 10).

There were three channels each from the Hindi GEC and Telugu genres, two channels from the Tamil genre and one channel each from the Kids and the Hindi movies genres in BARC weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres in week 30 of 2020. There were three channels each from Star India and Viacom18 (or associated with Viacom18 through its parent Network 18), two channels from SPN and one channel each from Sun TV and Zeel.

Please refer to the table below:

Top 10 FreeChannels Across Genres
Nine of the 10 channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in week 30 of 2020 were the same as in week 29. One channel – Enterr10 Television’s Bhojpuri channel, Bhojpuri Cinema, exited the list in week 30 of 2020 to be replaced by Zeel’s Bhojpuri channel Zee Biskope.

There were four channels from Zeel, two channels from Viacom18 and one channel each from B4U Network, Enterr 10 Television, SPN and Star India in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in week 30 of 2020. There six Hindi GECs, three Hindi Movies channels and one Bhojpuri channel in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in week 29 of 2020.

Please refer to the table below:

August 12, 2020