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Tag: Republic TV

  • Republic TV helps increase English News genre viewership

    Republic TV helps increase English News genre viewership

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

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

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

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 Just a couple of weeks after the launch of Republic TV – in week 21, its peer Indian English news channels had withdrawn their watermarks which made it difficult for BARC to fairly measure ratings for the English News genre – the channels didn’t want BARC to measure the new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

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

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

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

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

    public://1111111111111.jpg

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

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

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  • Stunning victory for Republic TV, Republic watches Times Now

    Stunning victory for Republic TV, Republic watches Times Now

    BENGALURU: As news television channels flashed and experts sliced, diced, hashed and rehashed the Supreme Court judgment holding the right to privacy as a fundamental right, the two premier English news television channels continued their own hashing and rehashing of ratings data on air. 

    Examples of the level of mockery that the two channels have made in the name of breaking news are in the title of this story – the first sentence of the title was flashed quite obviously on the Arnab Goswami lead Republic TV and the second one again obviously on Times Now.

    Here is an example of what Times Now viewers saw on their idiot boxes just post 1100 am this morning:

    Some of the prominent flashes on Times Now were statements such as The Republic watches Times Now; Victory for Honesty and Hard Word; India Rejects Stale and Biased Journalism; India endorses Honesty & credibility; Stories that force you to watch; etc.

    Times Now flashed relative share for English News genre: Times Now 42  percent; Republic TV 27 percent; India Today Television 10 percent; CNN News 18 – 8 percent; NDTV 24X 7 10 percent

    And this is what Republic TV viewers saw on their idiot boxes:

    200% greater than Times Now in primetime; Stunning victory for Republic TV; 15 weeks non-stop number 1; Stunning number 1 run continues; All India number 1 again; Forced and fake reach demolished; News wins, Content wins; Sensational leadership continues; Competition demolished in all India numbers.

    Republic TV indicated primetime (2100 to 2300 hours) ratings as 43 percent, 23.27 percent Times Now; CNN News 18 -11.10 percent; India Today Television 12.99 percent; NDTV 24×7 -8.68 percent; News X 1 percent.

    Both the channels have referred to Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly data for week 33 of 2017.

    Also Read:

    Times Now narrows gap with Republic TV, again

    Republic TV & Pushkar’s kin restrained, hearing on 21 Sept

    Times Now closes in on Republic TV

    Arnab Goswami told to respect Tharoor’s right, Delhi HC hearing on 16 Aug

  • Times Now narrows gap with Republic TV, again

    Times Now narrows gap with Republic TV, again

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

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

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

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

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

    Also Read:

    Times Now closes in on Republic TV

    Republic TV & Pushkar’s kin restrained, hearing on 21 Sept

  • Republic TV & Pushkar’s kin restrained, hearing on 21 Sept

    MUMBAI: The Delhi High Court has asked Republic TV and the kin of late Sunanda Pushkar not to indulge in “name calling” in connection with her death case but said there could be a possibility of some posturing from both sides.

    The court was hearing the Congress leader Shashi Tharoor’s plea seeking to restrain journalist-editor Arnab Goswami and his TV channel from alleged misreporting on his wife’s death, PTI reported. Pushkar was found dead in a south Delhi five-star hotel suite on the night of 17 January, 2014, in mysterious circumstances.

    Justice Manmohan made the above observation after lawyers accused each other of not being careful while tweeting about the case as well as about each other.

    The court has now told Tharoor’s lawyers to file their response to the affidavit filed by Goswami and the channel and listed the case for hearing on 21 September. Tharoor had filed Rs 20 million defamation suit against Goswami and his channel.

    While the media house was now careful in how it reported about the case, senior advocate Salman Khurshid, appearing for Tharoor, said some Republic TV reporters were not taking the same care while tweeting. Appearing for Republic TV, advocate Malvika Trivedi contended that Tharoor had also made endless tweets against it which, she said, were offensive.

    In response, Khurshid said that his client’s remarks about the media house were harsh and funny, but not defamatory and assured the court that such statements would not be made again. Khurshid said he does not want to gag the media. Investigation was their right, he said, but, he said, they had already held him guilty.

  • New NBA member Republic TV wants regional & web players in

    MUMBAI: Republic TV seems to have buried the hatchet with News Broadcasters Association and joined the body in what the former calls “in the larger interest of the ecosystem.” Republic TV CEO Vikas Khanchandani on Monday morning confirmed the development after the editor Arnab Goswami told Indiantelevision.com that he wanted Khanchandani to speak on the development.

    It may be recalled that Republic TV’s ratings success, soon after the 6-May launch, was not uneventful. The NBA had written to BARC India not to publish the new channel’s data until it’s cleared of wrongdoing on allegations of multiple feeds (LCNs). But, Goswami had discounted the importance of NBA, calling it a  “cabal” — a toothless body now used for lobbying and run by 4-5 people.

    However, Khanchandani now tells Indiantelevision.com: “NBA needs to be democratised with wider representation and voice from the various regional news players. We are looking forward to playing an instrumental role to make it an inclusive body. There is also a need and opportunity to expand the canvas  / scope as a leading industry body in the light of ever-increasing consumption of news content over the web.”

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  • Times Now – Republic TV slugfest continues as ratings gap narrows

    BENGALURU: The on-air spat about numerouno status continued between the two biggest players in the English News genre. The slugfest commenced with the launch of Republic TV in week 19 of 2017 on Saturday May 6 2017 with the new channel breaking Times Now’s firm hold on the pole position in the genre and how! Republic TV opened at the top of the English News genre with a stupendous 2.117 million weekly impressions, followed far behind with the usurped leader Times Now with 1.148 million weekly impressions in week 19 of 2017.

    Twelve weeks later, in week 30 (Saturday 22 July 2017 to Friday 28 July 2017), Republic TV still continues to rule the genre. Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) data for week 30 must of the top 5 English News  must be a jolt for the newcomer with Times Now two narrowing the margin to just 2,000 weekly impressions. Republic TV scored 1.074 million weekly impressions and Times Now 1.072 million impressions! Earlier, the closest the two channels ratings had come was in week 24 of 2017 when Republic TV garnered 0.963 million weekly impressions to Times Now’s 0.935million weekly impressions.

    Trailing far behind at third place in week 30 was India Today Television with 0.375 million weekly impressions as per BARC data for the top 5 English News channels – All India (U+R): NCCS AB: Males 22+ Individuals. NDTV 24×7 was fourth with 0.360 million weekly impressions followed close behindby CNN News 18 with 0.354 million weekly impresssions.

    As reported earlier post week 19, theArnabGoswami led new entrant raised the hackles of the existing players- accusations of theft, of rigging the ratings, running a ratings battle on Republic TV and its competition. It was suddenly an all-out war – multiple Goliaths had got together to demolish the fledgling David. The older channels ganged up together to stifle the new channel that the industry says followed practises that were of a doubtful nature. Ultimatums were given to the official ratings agency – BARC, it either stopped publishing Republic TV viewership data or the other Indian English News channels represented by the News Broadcasting Association (NBA) would withdraw their watermarks and hence disable BARC from publishing a fair picture of ratings lists. The NBA backed channels returned to the BARC fold in week 22.

    However, just post 1100 hours on Thursday 3 August 2017, both the channels claimed leadership in the genre by slicing and dicing BARC data to the component that was most favourable to each. Times Now quoted relative share numbers and claimed first place, while Republic TV harped on its leadership position during the primetime debate hours of 900 pm to 1100 pm. Republic TV now turned around and without naming the channel, accused it of using money muscle and unfair trade practises.

    Over the past twelve weeks- eleven weeks actually if one were to eliminate the neglect the ratings for week 21 of 2017, Republic TV’s overall combined ratings are about a third more at 13.368 million impressions than Times Now’s 10.068 million impressions. Please refer to the figure below for weekly impressions by the two channels between weeks 19 and 30 of 2017 excluding week 21.

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  • Times Now closes in on Republic TV

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

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

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

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

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

    Also Read:

    Republic TV retains lead as Times Now narrows gap

    Republic TV continues to lead English News genre in week after debut

    Republic TV buzzing with pre-launch teasers featuring ‘soft’ targets, issues

  • Do you want argumentative or sophisticated media, asks Arnab Goswami

    MUMBAI: India, with the help of advanced technology, editorial sophistication and big global channels is on threshold of becoming the media capital of the world before 2020, and will take on BBC, CNN and other global channels, dreams Republic TV news presenter and editor Arnab Goswami.

    “India is the only country where media can question anyone on any subject including religion, the kind of journalism that we practice, the way we go overboard, boldness being shown by journalists across the nation and bringing out the truth is helping media become an agent of social change. This will also help us become a global media platform before 2020. That is my dream,” Goswami said while speaking at an interactive session “News as an Agent of Change’ organised by FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO) here.

    “Delhi city has helped me grow in my career as I have spent nine and a half years of my professional life here and I always felt that it was not a city that supported pure merit. “In 2000-2001, I was about to quit this profession. I was frustrated as a journalist since I felt I was a cog in the wheel. Shifting base to Mumbai helped me do my kind of journalism and what we do is possible for bringing in social change because I was physically separated from the centre of power. This city has taught me the value of merit, independence and professionalism. I owe everything that I am today and everything that I can be to Delhi and Mumbai,” he said.

    “The television media has made politicians accountable for their doings. We play a conscious role towards being a force-multiplier for social movements. Such was the case during the India Against Corruption movement, in which Anna Hazare, Kiran Bedi, Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan came together. Today, when the media questions Kejriwal as a politician, people ask me, “Have you forgotten that you are the same people who put Kejriwal on a pedestal?” But, I never supported Arvind Kejriwal. I supported the fight against corruption. Our support was for the Lokpal movement and not for a group that wanted to become a political party,” said Goswami.

    “It’s always a tough decision to take the path less travelled. Rival channels have always accused me of being over the top and presenting a dumbed-down version of the news. However, I am a firm believer in my form of journalism — which does not believe in the ‘underhand delivery’. I look upon us as new-age journalists. It is my responsibility to throw a googly or bouncer to those in power once in a while,” he said.

    Goswami shared an anecdote which he termed “another mistake” in his career. This incident happened when actor Sanjay Dutt was being transported from Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail to Pune’s Yerwada prison. “I sent my reporters and camerapersons to cover Dutt’s story. While I was having my lunch, I got a phone call from someone in Bengaluru, who had been following my career and Times Now since a long time. He vowed never to watch my channel again. I was surprised and asked him why. He said that his best friend, Colonel Vasanth Venugopal had died in a combat with terrorists. But, not a single news channel had bothered to cover the martyrdom of this man. I was shocked and apologised to him. Suddenly, the whole Dutt drama looked puerile to me. I invited the man to come on my programme, and he agreed.”

    But, Goswami was in for a surprise. Before he went live, he asked his producer if the guest was ready. His producer replied, “Yes, she is ready”. Goswami told him it was a man, who had called up but his producer interrupted and said, “Col. Venugopal’s wife, Subhashini, decided to come on your programme.”

    Goswami recalled, “Here was a lady, who had cremated her husband four hours ago. What do I ask her? I started off by asking some opening questions. She spoke for 10 minutes from her heart – about her husband, about how proud she was of him and about her children. I got a call from Col. J. J. Singh, who was the chief of army staff at that time. He asked me for the brave lady’s number. The incident changed my perspective of journalism forever.”

    Towards the end of his speech, Goswami posed a thought-provoking question: “What kind of media do you want? Do you want this media, irrespective of how noisy, argumentative and difficult it is? Or, would you like to have the tame, quiet and sophisticated media that bowls underhand deliveries?”

  • Republic to debut VR content from August for viewers

    MUMBAI: English news channel Republic TV will introduce its first set of 10-series VR (virtual reality) news stories for viewers on its digital platform Republic World next month in a move that could probably be a first for an Indian news channel.

    “The future of digital is going to be (dominated by) the three areas of vertical videos, virtual reality and artificial intelligence. Over 37 per cent of the content on Republic TV is being streamed live,” Republic TV founder Arnab Goswami told the audience at the Indiantelevision-organised Vidnet 2017 here on Thursday while dwelling on the type of video content that will drive digital and connect and engage with the new-age viewer. He was in conversation with Indiantelevision.com Group founder, CEO and chief editor Anil Wanvari. 

    VR is the use of computer technology to create a simulated environment. Unlike traditional user interfaces, VR places the user inside an experience. Instead of viewing a screen in front of them, users are immersed and able to interact with 3D worlds

    Explaining the rationale behind betting big on digital and things like VR, Goswami said that Republic TV has 10 content partners in different languages in various states and the company was not “looking at digital as a source of income, but as a brand extension” initiative. Republic TV will have a separate VR feed on Republic World, the digital platform.

    Holding forth on content, technology and bigger competitors (David vs. Goliath is his oft-repeated expression), Goswami said he sees his company more “as a content creator not a content distributor”, adding, “The future of digital will be (dependent) on the engagement levels of the content, not just the scale that you (have) built up. In a fully digitised market, we are the content creators and are at absolutely even play (compared to incumbents). It no longer depends on money. We are spending our resources on content, reporter and talent”.

    Republic is offering its wide range of content with the help of media partners including Sambad, BusinessWorld, News Live, Niyomiya Barta, North East Live, Punjab Kesari, Aajkaal, S Newz, Dainik Bhaskar, Nirmana News, Kashmir Monitor and Lokmat. Community partners include tripoto.com, RSJ, LBB.in, yourstory.com, digit.in and AutoX.

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  • Republic World app to be launched soon, says Arnab Goswami

    MUMBAI: The unstoppable Arnab Goswani’s RepublicWorld app is expected to make its appearance in four to seven weeks.

    Earlier, Republic TV’s founder editor Arnab Goswami had formally announced the unveiling of its digital cousin –Republicworld.com – on 7 July. This was confirmed by Goswami at session at Vidnet 2017.

    The app is aimed at changing the look of news apps by other groups. The design and the look ofrepublicworld.com is very clean and visual heavy with news being segregated under various sections right from general news to politics to sport to lifestyle to tech to entertainment. Visitors can also watch Republic TV’s shows such as Arnab’s Sunday debate, The Anupam Kher show, R.Access, Patriot, and the new one: The Nation Wants to Know.

    Furthermore, the reader can customise the language for the site, according to his preferences. Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, English Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Bengali, and Odiya are the options given to him.

    Republicworld has been able to offer that wide a range of thanks to its partnership with various media houses with eight of them being specifically with digital outlets. The media partners include Business World, OTV, Sambad, News Live, Niyomiya Barta, North East Live, Punjab Kesari, Aajkaal, S Newz, Dainik Bhaskar, Nirmana News, Kashmir Monitor, Lokmat, Vikatan TV, Polimer, Asianetnews.tv, Asianet News, Kannada Prabha, Suvarna News, News Mobile.in; across India and the community partners include tripoto.com, RSJ, LBB.in, yourstory.com, digit.in, and AutoX.

    Additionally, what strikes one is the experimentation that is being attempted on republicworld.com in the form of the handful of 360-degree videos that have been put out on the site. Republic’s video content is being streamed in HD with the app slated for a launch in the next three weeks. It will feature long-format live and VoD content in the form of vertical videos, especially created for mobile audience as reported by indiantelevision.com on 30 June.

    As Republic TV CEO Vikas Khanchandani had said: “Innovation is very critical to succeed. We were clear that we want to differentiate. Look at the digital success and traditional success stories. Often, one of the primary reasons behind the triumph is technology, which is as important as content. Also, one needs to understand the consumer and the journey across platforms. Therefore, it’s critical to make sure that you are able to draw up a strategy that gives you maximum reach.”

    Republicworld.com COO Jay Chauhan had added: “In the digital content space, there is no dominant global player operating out of south Asia, and that’s a big opportunity for us. Republicworld.com is at the intersection of content and technology, so we will keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible to constantly engage and improve upon the user experience.”

    On the technology front, RepublicWorld has tieups with American and Canadian companies. Pierre Friquet (VR director/ writer/ consultant) from Canada and Ando Shah (founder & CEO at Tesseract) from San Francisco trained its producers for a month to shoot content in VR.

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