Tag: Radhika Roy

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
NDTV numbers down for Q2 2020

BENGALURU: The Prannoy and Radhika Roy-led New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV) reported consolidated loss of Rs 10.50 crore for the quarter ended 30 September 2019 (Q2 2020, quarter or period under review) as compared to a profit of Rs 0.58 crore for the corresponding year ago quarter Q2 2019 (y-o-y). Consolidated operating revenue for the period under review declined 17.4 percent y-o-y to Rs 77.22 crore from Rs 102.24 crore in Q2 2019.

Consolidated total income which includes operating revenue as well as other income for Q2 2020 declined 21.8 percent y-o-y to Rs 78.8 crore from Rs 10.83 crore.

Consolidated Operating loss for the period under review was Rs 0.76 crore as compared to an operating profit (EBITDA) of Rs 4.35 crore in Q1 2019.

The company has two segments – television media and related operations (TV); and Retail/Ecommerce segment (Retail). For its TV segment, NDTV reported 17.6 percent y-o-y revenue decline at Rs 75.81 crore for Q2 2020 from Rs 92.03 crore. TV segment operating result for Q2 2020 was loss at Rs 1.25 crore as compared to an operating profit of Rs 13.92 crore for Q1 2019. For the Retail segment, NDTV reported revenue of Rs 1.87crore for Q2 2020 as compared to Rs 3.69 crore in Q2 2019. NDTV reported negative operating result (loss) to the extent of Rs 0.66 crore and loss of Rs 5.40 crore for Q2 2020 and Q2 2019 respectively.

Let us look at the other numbers reported by NDTV

Total expenses in Q2 2020 reduced 11.2 percent y-o-y to Rs 87.57 crore from Rs 98.65 crore. Production expenses and cost of services in Q2 2020 reduced 5.3 percent y-o-y to Rs 21.10 crore from Rs 22.29 crore. Finance costs increased 8.2 percent y-o-y in Q2 2020 to Rs 6.86 crore from Rs 6.34 crore during the corresponding period of the previous year. Employee benefit expense reduced 20.8 percent y-o-y in Q2 2020 to Rs 28.91 crore from Rs 36.49 crore in Q2 2019. Operating and administrative cost in the quarter under review increased 2.5 percent y-o-y to Rs 19.55 crore from Rs 19.08 crore in Q2 2019. Marketing distribution and promotional expenses in Q2 2020 was 25.3 percent lower y-o-y at Rs 8.42 crore as compared to Rs 11.27 crore.

November 13, 2019
CBI books NDTV promoters for FDI violations: report

MUMBAI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked promoters of news channel NDTV, Prannoy Roy, Radhika Roy, former CEO and director Vikram Chandra and some Income Tax officials on charges of conspiracy, cheating and corruption. They are being accused of allegedly violating FDI rules between 2004 and 2010.

As per a report by Hindustan Times, NDTV has dismissed the allegations stating that they are ‘malicious’ and ‘fabricated’ so as to ‘silence free and fair reportage’.

The CBI is alleging that NDTV colluded with IT officials to bring tainted money into the system through a web of complex transactions through FDI. This was done by floating 32 subsidiaries in various tax havens across the world such as Mauritius, Netherlands, Dubai, UK and Malaysia. The CBI states that NDTV’s London company raised funds worth $120 million from two companies while the Netherlands company raised $150 million from NBCUniversal, which was at the time a subsidiary of General Electric Inc. The money was then routed to different NDTV Group subsidiaries such as NDTV Imagine Ltd, NDTV Life Style Ltd, NDTV Emerging Market BV, NDTV Convergence Ltd and NDTV Labs Ltd.

NDTV, in a written response, said, “As part of the continued persecution of free press, a new CBI case has been filed about a $150 million investment in NDTV’s non-news business by NBCU, then owned by General Electric, a massive American conglomerate. The case makes the ludicrous charge that the transaction, declared to all relevant authorities in the US and India, laundered money for unknown public servants.”

“Attempts to silence free and fair reportage through malicious and fabricated charges will not succeed. This is not about a company or individuals but about a larger battle to maintain the freedom of the press, something which India has always been renowned for,” the statement added.

August 22, 2019
NDTV profits up in Q1 FY20

BENGALURU: The Prannoy and Radhika Roy-led New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV) reported consolidated profit after tax of Rs 16.66 crore for the quarter ended 30 June 2019 (Q1 2020, quarter or period under review) as compared to a loss of Rs 10.73 crore for the corresponding year ago quarter Q1 2019 (y-o-y). Consolidated PAT for the period under review grew 26.4 per cent from the Rs 13.18 crore reported in the immediate trailing quarter Q4 2019 (q-o-q).

The company reported 10.3 per cent y-o-y growth and 7.3 per cent q-o-q growth in consolidated operating revenue for Q1 2020 at Rs 109.67 crore. For Q1 2019 and Q4 2019 the company had reported consolidated operating revenues of Rs 99.43 crore and Rs 102.24 crore respectively. Consolidated total income which includes operating revenue as well as other income for Q1 2020 grew 12 per cent y-o-y to Rs 113.87 crore from Rs 101.66 crore, but declined 1.2 per cent q-o-q from Rs 115.28 crore.

Operating EBITDA for the period under review grew 275.2 per cent (almost quadrupled) per cent y-o-y to Rs 25.29 crore (23.1 per cent of operating revenue) from Rs 6.74 crore (6.8 per cent of operating revenue) and grew 46.5 per cent q-o-q from Rs 17.26 crore (16.9 per cent of operating revenue).

The company has two segments – television media and related operations (TV); and Retail/Ecommerce segment (Retail). For its TV segment, NDTV reported 11.5 per cent y-o-y revenue growth at Rs 108.96 crore for Q1 2020 from Rs 97.72 crore and 7.8 per cent q-o-q revenue growth from Rs 101.40 crore. TV segment operating result for Q1 2020 was 164.5 per cent y-o-y higher at Rs 27.64 crore from Rs 10.45 crore but was 1.7 per cent lower q-o-q than Rs 28.12 crore. For the Retail segment, NDTV reported revenue of Rs 1.65 crore for Q1 2020 which was 55.3 per cent lower y-o-y than Rs 3.69 crore and was 13.6 per cent lower q-o-q than Rs 1.91 crore. NDTV reported negative operating result (loss) for all the three quarters to the extent of Rs 1.05 crore, 4.71 crore and Rs 0.33 crore for Q1 2020, Q1 2019 and Q4 2019 respectively.

Let us look at the other numbers reported by NDTV

Total expenses in Q1 2020 reduced 8.4 per cent y-o-y to Rs 93.96 crore from Rs 102.58 crore. Production expenses and cost of services in Q1 2020 increased 28.3 per cent y-o-y to Rs 24.16 crore from Rs 18.83 crore. Finance costs increased 0.3 per cent y-o-y in Q1 2020 to Rs 6.68 crore from Rs 6.66 crore during the corresponding period of the previous year. Employee benefit expense reduced 18.9 per cent y-o-y in Q1 2020 to Rs 31.46 crore from Rs 38.77 crore in Q1 2019. Operating and administrative cost in the quarter under review reduced 19.2 per cent y-o-y to Rs 16.51 crore from Rs 20.44 crore in Q1 2019. Marketing distribution and promotional expenses in Q1 2020 was 16.4 per cent lower at Rs 12.25 crore as compared to Rs 14.68 crore.

July 31, 2019
NDTV broadcast operations’ profitable run continues in Q3 2019

BENGALURU: Indian television media company New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV) reported profits for the third consecutive quarter in the current fiscal from its broadcast operations, a record that has happened for the first time in fourteen years claims the company in a press release. Despite a year-on-year (y-o-y) drop in revenues the company has managed to turn fortunes around by paring off of a number of expenses, the most notable being employee cost, which has dropped by more than a third (36.7 percent) in the latest quarter as compared to the corresponding year ago quarter.

For the quarter ended 31 December 2018 (Q3 2019, quarter or period under review), NDTV has reported consolidated profit after tax of Rs 8.31 crore (8.1 percent of operating income) as compared to a consolidated loss of Rs 21.04 crore for the corresponding year ago quarter (Q3 2018). NDTV’s consolidated total comprehensive income (TCI) for the quarter under review was Rs 8.31 crore as compared to a consolidated total comprehensive loss of Rs 22.42 crore for Q3 2018. The company’s consolidated operating profit (operating EBITDA) for the period was Rs 17.3 crore (16.9 percent of operating revenue) as compared to a consolidated operating loss (negative EBITDA) of Rs 2.58 crore) in Q3 2018.

Segment numbers

NDTV has two segments – television media and related operations (Television) and retail/ecommerce. Television revenue for Q3 2019 declined 8.1 percent y-o-y to Rs 100.54 crore from Rs 109.40 crore. Television segment reported results of Rs 20.35 crore in Q3 2019 as compared to Rs 7.46 crore in Q3 2018.

Retail/ecommerce segment had operating revenue of Rs 2.20 crore in Q3 2019 as compared to Rs 4.55 crore in Q3 2018. The segment’s loss for the period declined to Rs 2.09 crore from Rs 9.50 crore.

Let us look at the other numbers reported by the company

NDTV’s consolidated operating revenue for Q3 2019 declined 8.2 percent y-o-y to Rs 102,64 crore as compared to Rs 111.68 crore for the corresponding year ago quarter. Total revenue including other income also dropped by 8.2 percent y-o-y in the period under review to Rs 106.50 crore as compared to Rs 116.05 crore for Q3 2018.

Total expenses in Q3 2019 reduced 22.7 percent y-o-y to Rs 95.21 crore (92.9 percent of operating revenue) from Rs 128.22 crore (110.3 percent of operating revenue). The company has reduced most of the major expenses, however, amongst the major ones, finance costs increased 36.1 percent y-o-y in Q3 2019 to Rs 6.97 crore (6.8 percent of operating revenue) from Rs 5.12 crore (4.6 percent of operating revenue) crore during the corresponding period of the previous year.

As mentioned above, employee benefit expense reduced 36.9 percent y-o-y in Q3 2019 to Rs 31.26 crore (30.5 percent of operating revenue) from Rs 49.38 crore (44.2 percent of operating revenue) in Q3 2018. Operating and administrative cost in the quarter under review increased 27.9 percent y-o-y to Rs 18.06 crore (17.6 percent of operating revenue) from Rs 25.06 crore (22.4 percent of operating revenue) in Q3 2018. Marketing distribution and promotional expenses in Q3 2019 was 29.9 percent lower at Rs 11.64 crore (11.4 percent of operating revenue) as compared to Rs 16.6 crore (14.9 percent of operating revenue)

The NDTV Group

The company’s financial statements claim that the NDTV Group has made profits for the quarter under review as compared to the corresponding year ago quarter. Further, profit for Q3 2019 has gone up by Rs 7.72 crore as compared to the preceding quarter (Q2 2019). Similarly, losses for the nine-month period ended 31 December 2018 (9M 2019) have gone down to Rs 1.58 crore from Rs 67.82 crore for 9M-2018. NDTV says that based on current business plans and projections, the company/group expects growth in operations and improvement in operational efficiency. To meet long term and short-term working capital requirements, which includes certain overdue payments, the management continues to implement various options like rationalising costs, negotiating extended credit terms and divestment of non-core businesses address these matters and building efficiency in collections.

The company’s media release says that NDTV Convergence, the company’s digital arm, has, for the first time, earned more than Rs 40 crore in one quarter. In December, the company disclosed that it has signed a five-year advertising deal worth more than Rs 300 crore with native advertising platform Taboola.

February 9, 2019
NDTV’s Prannoy & Radhika Roy get SEBI notice for insider trading

MUMBAI: Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has issued a show cause notice to Dr Prannoy Roy and his wife Radhika, both promoters of New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV) for alleged insider trading.

“Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy, have informed that on 10 September 2018, they have received a show cause notice dated 31 August 2018, by the Securities and Exchange Board of India,” NDTV said in a regulatory filing.

NDTV said the notice has been issued alleging violation of provisions of Section 12A (d) and (e) of the SEBI Act read with Regulation 3(i) and Regulation 4 of SEBI(Prohibition of lnsider Trading) Regulations, 1992.

It further stated, “The promoters of NDTV are in the process of seeking legal advice to take appropriate action in the said matter. Since the company is not a party to the show cause notice, there will not be any financial implications of the show cause notice on the company”.

NDTV closed Tuesday 3 per cent down at Rs 34.30 on the BSE, while the 30-share Sensex ended the day 1.34 per cent down at 37,413.

September 12, 2018
NDTV reports operating profit after curbing op costs in Q1

BENGALURU: New Delhi Television Limited (NDTV) reported consolidated operating profit (EBIDTA) of Rs 5.99 crore for thefor the quarter ended 30 June 2018 (Q1 2019, quarter or period under review) as compared to an operating loss of Rs 14.25 crore for the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal year Q1 2018. The company’s consolidated operating revenue during the period under review declined 6.6 percent year on year (y-o-y) in Q1 2019 to Rs 98.18 crore from Rs 105.12 crore in Q1 2018. Consolidated total income for Q1 2019 declined 7.7 percent y-o-y to Rs 101.16 crore from Rs 109.60 crore.

NDTV reported lower consolidated loss of Rs 0.81 crore during the quarter under review as compared to a loss of Rs 18.38 crore in Q1 2018. Consolidated total comprehensive loss for Q1 2019 was lower at Rs 2.64 crore as compared to Rs 22.01 crore in Q1 2018.

Let us look at the other consolidated numbers reported by NDTV

Consolidated total expense in Q1 2019 reduced 20.6 percent y-o-y to Rs 102.08 crore from Rs 128.56 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Consolidated production expenses and cost of services increased 5.1 percent in Q1 2019 to Rs 18.83 crore from Rs 17.91 crore in Q1 2018. Consolidated employee benefit expense during the quarter under review reduced 35.2 percent y-o-y in Q1 2019 to Rs 38.77 crore from Rs 59.80 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. Consolidated operation and administration expense reduced 17.2 percent y-o-y in Q1 2019 to Rs 19.94 crore from Rs 24.07 crore in Q1 2018. Consolidated marketing, promotion and distribution expense during the period under review reduced 16.7 percent to Rs 14.65 crore from Rs 17.59 crore in Q1 2018.

August 9, 2018
NDTV reports lower operating loss for fiscal 2018

BENGALURU: The Prannoy and Radhika Roy-led New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV) reported lower consolidated operating loss for the year ended 31 March 2018 (FY 2018, year under review) as compared to the corresponding periods of the previous fiscal. The company has brought down its expenses during the year under review across major parameters such as employee costs, production expenses and cost of services, operating and administration expenses, marketing promotion and distribution expenses as compared to the previous year.

NDTV reported 12.4 per cent decline in consolidated operating revenue for FY 2018 at Rs 429.01 crore as compared to Rs 489.99 crore in FY 2017. Consolidated total revenue declined 12.3 per cent in FY 2018 to Rs 439.71 crore from Rs 501.45 crore in the previous year. Consolidated operating loss (EBITDA) in FY 2018 at Rs 35.97 crore was lower than the consolidated operating loss of Rs 42.32 crore in fiscal 2017. Total comprehensive loss (TCL) for the fiscal under review was slightly lower at Rs 84.35 crore as compared to Rs 86.18 crore in FY 2017.

The company suffered a consolidated operating loss for the fourth quarter ended 31 March 2018 at Rs 9.45 crore as compared to a consolidated operating profit of Rs 16.63 crore (11.4 per cent of operating revenue) in the corresponding year ago quarter Q4 2018. NDTV reported consolidated TCL of Rs 20.40 crore during the quarter under review as compared to a consolidated total comprehensive income of Rs 7.14 crore in Q4 2017.Consolidated operating revenue in Q4 2018 fell 25.7 per cent yoy to Rs 108.40 crore as compared to Rs 145.92 crore in Q4 2017.

Let us look at the other consolidated numbers reported by NDTV

Total expense in FY 2018 reduced 12.5 per cent to Rs 501.06 crore from Rs 572.55 crore in the previous year. Production expenses and cost of services reduced 23.3 per cent in FY 2018 to Rs 83.64 crore from Rs 109.05 crore in FY 2017. Employee benefit expense during the year under review reduced 9.5 per cent in fiscal 2018 to Rs 212.59 crore from Rs 234.90 crore in the previous year. Operation and administration expense reduced 7.5 per cent in FY 2018 to Rs 106.61 crore from Rs 115.30 crore in FY 2017. Marketing, promotion and distribution expense during the year under review reduced 14.9 per cent to Rs 62.14 crore from Rs 72.06 crore in FY 2017.

Also Read:

NDTV to reduce workforce by up to 25%

NDTV puts top management in place

May 12, 2018
Hindi news channels continue strong run in 2018

BENGALURU:The combined total viewership of the top-five Hindi news channels shows that it has a huge audience when compared to the combined total viewership of the top-five news channels of each of the four South Indian languages individually. However, when audiences of the top-five news channels of the four South Indian languages are combined, their 15-week average viewership exceeds the 15-week average ofthe combined total of the top-five Hindi news channels’ viewership by about 13 percent. Though the audience demographics of Hindi and the four South Indian languages are different (13 years difference), they have been compared in the chart. English news has not been mentioned in the first graph because (1) of the wide variance in the audience demographics between the South Indian language news and Indian English news which is 20 years (2) the viewership of Indian English news is too small to be comparable.

This report is about Indian news channels—including Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and English—for which limited ratings data is available in the public domain. Business news channels or news channels in other languages have not been included in this report. The ratings data considered has limitations–it has been sourced from Broadcast Audience Research Council of India’s (BARC) weekly lists of the top-five news channels in each language.

The first fifteen weeks of 2018 is the period starting Saturday, 30 December 2018 to Friday, 13 April 2018, the last week for which BARC data was available at the time of writing of this report.

BARC says that its data is based on the following viewer geographies and demographic parameters for news in Hindi, the four South Indian languages and English:

(a)     Hindi news: Hindi-speaking markets, both urban and rural or HSM (U+R): NCCS All: 15+ Individuals.

(b)     Telugu news: Andhra Pradesh or AP/Telangana (U+R): NCCS All: 2+ Individuals

(c)     Kannada news: Karnataka (U+R): NCCS All: 2+ Individuals

(d)     Tamil news: Tamil Nadu/Puducherry (U+R): NCCS All: 2+ Individuals

(e)     Malayalam news: Kerala (U+R): NCCS All: 2+ Individuals

(f)      English news: All India (U+R): NCCS AB: Males 22+ Individuals.

The unit of viewership measure in all cases in the charts below is thousand weekly impressions.

The overall status

Let us see how the top-five channels of five languages–Hindi and the four South Indian languages–have performed. Please refer to the chart below.

News viewership is event driven. The biggest event that occurred during the first 15 weeks of 2018 was the discussions and debates just before, during and after the elections results announcement of some Indian states in week 9 of 2018–ratings of all the channels peaked as is obvious from the figure. The only exception was Kannada news, the genre’s peak was in week 8 of 2018 based on the combined viewership of the top-five Kannada news channels.

The combined viewership of the top-five Hindi news channels in week 9 was a staggering 931.068 million impressions–almost at par with the most-watched channel across genre in the country–Sun Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV. The lowest combined viewership of the top-five Hindi news channels during the first 15 weeks of 2018 was in week 15–just 393.013 million impressions–this was the week that the eleventh season of the cricket Indian Premier League or IPL 11 commenced and was aired on a number of Star India network channels. The importance of the IPL on viewership and cannot be understated and must be underscored. In the very first week of the tourney, one of the many Star India Network channels that aired the event—Star Sports 1 Hindi, catapulted into BARC’s top 10 channels across genre weekly list to second place with 935.856 million impressions—more than the peak combined impressions of the top-five Hindi news channels in week 9 of 2018. Before IPL 11 in week 15 of 2018, Star Sports 1 Hindi had never made it to BARC’s list of top-10 channels across genres in 2018!

After Hindi news channels, Telugu news channels had the next largest audience during the first 15 weeks of 2018 going by the combined weekly totals of the top-five Telugu news channels. On a similar basis, at third place in terms of audience size was Kannada News, followed by Tamil news at fourth rank and Malayalam news at fifth place.

Top Hindi news channels during the first 15 weeks of 2018

Only three channels consistently appeared in BARC’s weekly lists of top-five Hindi News channels in HSM (U+R) during the first 15 weeks of 2018. In order of viewership, they wereAajTak, Zee News and India TV.

Three more Hindi news channels made appearances in BARC’s weekly lists of top-five Hindi News channels during the first fifteen weeks of 2018. They were News 18 India (present in the lists for 14 of the first 15 weeks of 2018); ABP News (present in the lists for 11 of the first 15 weeks of 2018); and News Nation (present in the lists for 5 of the first 15 weeks of 2018). As is obvious from the figure below, all the top 3 channels reported a drop in ratings in week 15 as compared to week 14 of 2018. Please refer to the chart below for the Top Hindi News channels – Weeks 1 to 15 of 2018. As has been mentioned in this paper before, the unit on the Y-axis in the graph is thousand weekly impressions.

Top Telugu news channels during the first 15 weeks of 2018

Four channels consistently made it to BARC’s weekly lists of top-five Telugu News channels during the first 15 weeks of 2018. They were TV9 Telugu; NTV Telugu; V6 News; and TV 5 News. The other three Telugu channels that made it to the lists include 10 TV (present in the lists for 8 of first 15 weeks of 2018); ABN Andhra Jyothi (present in the lists for 4 of the first 15 weeks of 2018); and T News (present in the lists for 3 of the first 15 weeks of 2018).

Please refer to the figure below. As is obvious, TV9 Telugu was in general the top Telugu News channel, but, for a few weeks, it had been overtaken by the second ranked NTV Telugu, which itself was overtaken by V6 News to second place for one week—week 13 of 2018.

Top Kannada news channels during the first 15 weeks of 2018

In the case of Kannada News channels, four channels were consistently present in BARC’s list of top-five Kannada News channels during the first 15 weeks of 2018. They were TV9 Kannada, Public TV, Suvarana News 24X7 and News18 Kannada. From the figure below, it is quite obvious that the demarcations in the ranks are simple. TV9 Kannada was consistently the most viewed Kannada News channel, followed by Public TV. It was only for one week (week 14) during the first 15 weeks of 2018 that there was a small blip when News18 Kannada replaced Suvarna News 24X7 at third place.

Two more news channels made it to BARC’s weekly lists of Top-five Kannada News channels during the first 15 weeks of 2018. In order of the viewership size they attracted when they were present in BARC list, they were BTV News (present BARC’s weekly lists for 7 of the 15 weeks) and Dighvijay 24×7 News (present in BARC’s weekly lists for 8 of the 15 weeks). The former drew more eyeballs during the seven weeks it was present in BARC’s list than the latter did during the 8 weeks that it was present in BARC’s lists.

Top Tamil news channels during the first 15 weeks of 2018

Four channels were consistently present in BARC’s list of top-five Tamil News channels during the first 15 weeks of 2018. In order of ranking they were: Polimer News, Puthiya Thalaimurai, Thanti TV and News 7 Tamil. Clearly, Polimer News was the most watched Tamil News channel during the first 15 weeks of 2018. Puthiya Thalaimurai was ranked second for 9 of the first 15 weeks of 2018, and was ranked third for 6 of the weeks of 2018. Thanti TV was ranked second for 6 of first 15 weeks and ranked third for 9 of the first 15 weeks of 2018, while News 7 Tamil was ranked fourth consistently during the first 15 weeks of 2018.

Three more channels made it BARC’s list of top-five Tamil News channels during the first 15 weeks of 2018. They were Sun TV (present in BARC’s weekly lists for 11 of the 15 weeks); News 18 Tamil Badu (present in BARC’s weekly lists for 3 of the 11 weeks); while Seithigal made its lone appearance in week 13 of 2018 in BARC’s weekly lists of top-five Tamil news channels during the period under review.

Please refer to the figure below:

Top Malayalam news channels during the first 15 weeks of 2018

Three channels made it consistently to BARC’s weekly lists of top-five Malayalam News channels during the first 15 weeks of 2018. They were Asianet News, Manorama News and Mathrubhumi News. The rank demarcations were quite clear.Asianet News was the leader of the genre by far during the period under review.

Four other news channels made it to BARC’s weekly lists of top-five Malayalam News channels during the first 15 weeks of 2018–they were News 18 Kerala (present in BARC’s weekly lists for 12 of the 15 weeks); Media One TV (also present in BARC’s weekly lists for 12 of the 15 weeks, but with lower viewership than News 18 Kerala when present in the lists); People TV (present in BARC’s weekly lists for 5 of the 15 weeks) and Janam TV which made its single appearance in week 3 of 2018.

Please refer to the figure below:

Top Indian English news channels during the first 15 weeks of 2018

The Indian English news channel genre is niche and special. Generally, five channels made it consistentlyto BARC’s weekly lists of top-five English News channels. However, the Times group’s civic issues focused News channel Mirror Now (the erstwhile MagicBricks Now that was earlier focused on real estate news and information) has grabbed viewers interest and was present in BARC’s lists of top-five English News channels twice during the first 15 weeks of 2018. Mirror Now made it to BARC’s weekly lists of top-fiveEnglish News channels in weeks 6 and 9 of 2018 during the first 15 weeks of 2018. In the past (before 2018) a few other English News channels including international news channels such as BBC World and Indian News channels such as NewsX and Wion have made it to BARC’s weekly lists of top-five English news channels.

Coming back to the present, the four channels which were consistently present in BARC’s lists of top-five English News channels were: Republic TV, Times Now, India Today Television, and CNN News18 during the first 15 weeks of 2018. The other regular to the lists has been the Prannoy and Radhika Roy led NDTV 24×7 which was present in BARC’s weekly lists of top-five News channels for 13 of the first 15 weeks of 2018.

The rank demarcations in terms of viewership of the English News genre were quite clear during the first 15 weeks of 2018–the Arnab Goswami led Republic TV has been the pack leader right from the week Republic TV was launched–week 19 of 2017. However, viewership of the earlier numerouno and Goswami’s former employer, Times Now, has almost equalled Republc TV’s ratings twice in 2018–in weeks 8 and 12. Please refer to the figure below:

Also Read :

IPL 11 catapults Star Sports 1 Hindi to second place in across genres

Zee Anmol leads Hindi GEC (U+R) in BARC week 15

Republic TV continues to lead as English news genre ratings drop

April 23, 2018
Republic TV continues to lead as English news genre ratings drop

BENGALURU: Arnab Goswami-headed Indian English news channel Republic TV has continued an uninterrupted lead of the genre since its launch in May 2017. Republic TV led the genre with 0.553 million weekly impressions in week 15 of 2018 (Saturday, 7 April 2018 to Friday, 13 April 2018) according to Broadcast Audience Research Council of India’s weekly data for the top-five English news channels—All India (U+R) : NCCS AB : males 22+ individuals. BARC had reported 0.652 million weekly impressions for Republic TV for week 14 of 2018.

In the meanwhile, the ratings of the genre have recorded a new nadir–the lowest combined weekly ratings of the top-five English news channels for 2018 until week 15 were 1.678 million impressions, 19 per cent lower than the previous weeks combined ratings of the top-five English news channels of 2.071 million impressions in the previous week. The 11th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 11) commenced in week 15 of 2018 and the ratings of news television channels were most likely affected. Most of the matches are played during the primetime of GECs, news channels as well as other genres.

All the five channels in BARC’s list remained the same with the same ranks in week 15 of 2018 as compared with week 14. As a matter of fact, the first three ranked channels have retained their places and order in BARC’s weekly list of the top-five English news channels through the first 15 weeks of 2018. All the channels, however, had lower ratings in week 15 as compared with week 14 of 2018.

Republic TV was followed by Goswami’s former channel–Times Now–for which BARC reported ratings of 0.488 million weekly impressions in week 15 of 2018. Times Now had ratings of 0.595 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Continuing on at its regular third rank was India Today Television with 0.265 million weekly impressions in the week under review as compared with 0.363 million weekly impressions in the previous week.

At fourth rank was CNN News18 with 0.219 million weekly impressions in week 15 of 2018 as against 0.293 million weekly impressions in week 14. At fifth rank was the Prannoy and Radhika Roy led NDTV 24×7 with 0.153 million weekly impressions in week 15 as compared with 0.168 million weekly impressions in week 14 of 2018

April 19, 2018