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  • TV news channels face-off ahead of counting day on 2 May

    TV news channels face-off ahead of counting day on 2 May

    KERALA: As people in four Indian states and one union territory await the vote counting day on 2 May, television news channels in the country are all set to cover all major developments religiously. With exclusive live shows, debates, and up-to-date coverage of counting statistics, broadcast news outlets are adopting various strategies to ensure dominance in the ratings game.

    The states which went to polls in the last month are West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, and Kerala, and the union territory of Puducherry. 

    List of channels that are covering election results 

    News channels in India, both regional and national will be extensively covering election result news on counting day. In West Bengal, the key players are News18 Bangla, Zee 24 Ghanta, TV9 Bangla and ABP Ananda. The recently launched Republic Bangla, an arm of Arnab Goswami’s Republic Media Network, will also devote its energies to election coverage.

    In Assam, the most popular news channels are News18 Assam/North East, DY365, and Assam Talks, while in Kerala, the election results will be reported by major players that include Asianet News, Manorama News, Mathrubhumi News, News18 Kerala, and 24 News. 

    When it comes to Tamil Nadu, Sun News is gearing up to broadcast the election results live to the audiences. Considering the popularity of the news channel in Tamil Nadu, most of the viewers are expected to tune in to this channel to get live election results. Interestingly, the stock of Kalanithi Maran-owned Sun TV jumped a little over 14 per cent ahead of the verdict on the Tamil Nadu Assembly elections, from Rs 458 last week to Rs 519.30 by the end of Thursday. Some other news channels that will telecast Tamil Nadu legislative election results live are Jaya Plus, News18 Tamil Nadu, and Raj News. 

    Apart from these regional channels that cover election results in their respective states, national channels that include News18 India, ABP, Republic TV, News Nation, NDTV, and CNN will be broadcasting compiled live election results from various states. 

    News channels competing hard

    News18 India, in a recent statement, said that the channel will bring the fastest and most accurate results along with comprehensive coverage of the counting day beginning at 6 am. 

    “News18 India has set up a Live Result Hub which will leverage the strength of the channel’s on-ground team and reach. The channel’s team present across all the counting booths across the states will share live counting results which will be then collated and analysed at the Live Result Hub. The reportage on the channel will comprise a combination of live coverage from ground zero and in-studio discussions with renowned political analysts and commentators,” the channel said in the statement. 

    On 2 May, news shows, debates, and counting updates on News18 India will be anchored by Kishore Ajwani, Amish Devgan, and Prateek Trivedi. 

    Popular Hindi news channel ABP News aired its exit poll survey on 29 April. The channel has also set up an active team to cover all the counting day updates beginning at 6 am on 2 May. 

    News Nation has also planned several election special programs for counting day. Live telecast will begin at six in the morning with Faisla Aapka which means ‘Verdict is Yours’. 

    NDTV’s counting day coverage will also begin at 6 am, and news outlet has roped in several political leaders, observers, and analysts to participate in their news shows on the day. 

    Malayalam news channel Asianet News revealed that this will be its first hi-tech election coverage. Asianet News editor-in-chief MG Radhakrishnan said that the channel will use advanced possibilities of augmented eeality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies to bring the latest updates on the counting day. 

    “We will be the first in India to introduce our own ‘Follower’, a GFX tool by which the anchors with a device held in their hands can present a gamut of graphic displays. Besides, as always we have made elaborate arrangements to get the trend and results as quick as possible to our viewers. We go live from early morning with our reporters ready at the counting centres,” added Radhakrishnan. 

    Asianet News in association with C-Fore made live its post-poll survey results on 29 April. Manorama News, Mathrubhumi News and 24 News also have an extensive line-up of election coverage shows including live updates, debates and analysis sessions. 

    Legislative assembly elections 2021: All you need to know 

    In West Bengal, the ruling party Trinamool Congress (TMC) will lock horns with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in a high voltage battle. Tamil Nadu, as always, will witness a tough battle between DMK and AIADMK. In this election, Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam is also eyeing to grab some seats. 

    Kerala is witnessing a tough election battle, as the Left Democratic Front (LDF) led by incumbent chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan is aiming to get a second term. However, the United Democratic Front (UDF) believes that there is a strong anti-incumbency factor in the state. 

    In Assam, the BJP and the Indian National Congress are going head to head, and recent post-poll predictions suggest that the saffron party is likely to retain power in the state. 

    The battle in Puducherry is between BJP and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) consisting of Congress, DMK, CPI, and VCK. 

  • News consumption in South Indian languages during first 7 weeks of 2018

    News consumption in South Indian languages during first 7 weeks of 2018

    BENGALURU: Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has started publishing weekly viewership data of top 5 news channels in each of the four South Indian languages in their respective markets since week 1 of 2018 ( Saturday, 30 December 2017 to Friday  5 January 2018) in the public domain. There are a number of news channels in each of the four southern languages. At the time of writing of this paper, data is available up to week 7 of 2018 (Saturday, 10 February 2018 to Friday, 16 February 2018). The languages and respective markets are Tamil – Puducherry/Tamil Nadu (TN); Telugu – Andhra Pradesh (AP) /Telangana; Kannada – Karnataka; Malayalam – Kerala. The audience profile is urban and rural: NCCS 2+ individuals. Saturday, 30 December 2017 to Friday, 16 February 2018 is the period under consideration or review in this paper. The impressions mentioned are generally the combined weekly impressions of the top 5 news channels of each language or the combined weekly impressions of each channel during the period under consideration. Only those channels that have appeared in BARC’s lists of top 5 channels for each language have been considered in this paper, with a mention of the periodic entrants to the lists.

    Comparing news consumption in each of the markets, based on BARC’s combined weekly impressions data for top 5 news channels, news seems to be most watched in Telugu in the AP/Telangana and in Kannada in the Karnataka markets during the first seven weeks of 2018. Tamil news in the TN/Puducherry followed by Malayalam news in Kerala complete the four southern languages. 

    News viewership is generally event driven. The biggest event during the first seven weeks of 2018 was the announcement of the budget by Indian finance minister Arun Jaitley. Budget week or week 5 of 2018 (Saturday, 27 January 2018 to Friday, 2 February 2018) seems not to have made too much of an impact in terms of viewership growth for three of the four southern languages based on the sum of the weekly impressions of each week  for each language (combined weekly impressions)  While viewership of the top 5 news channels seems to have peaked in week 5 of 2018 for Kannada, it was the highest in week 6 (Saturday, 3 February 2018 to Friday 9 February 2018) in the case of Telugu and Malayalam. Combined viewership on the top 5 Tamil news channels seems to be declining – it had peaked in week 2 of 2018 (Saturday 6 January 2018 to Friday 12 January 2018).

    Please refer to the figure below for combined weekly impressions of the top 5 news channels in each of the four southern languages.

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    In all the 4 languages, the order in ranks in terms of viewership of the top 3 or 4 channels has generally been the same. Week 7 of 2018 has seen some shuffling and upsets in ranks in the southern news channels.

    Tamil News

    Four channels have appeared during all the first seven weeks of 2018 in BARC’s weekly list for top 5 Tamil News channels. Polimer News was numero uno during all the first seven weeks of 2018 in terms of impressions garnering 245,313 impressions during the period under consideration in this paper. Puthiya Thalaimurai was ranked second during the first seven weeks of 2017 in terms of total impressions during the period – the channel garnered 202,887 impressions. The channel was ranked second during weeks 1,2,4 5 and 6 and ranked third in weeks 3 and 7 of 2018. 

    Thanti TV was the third most watched Tamil News channel between weeks 1 and 7 of 2018. Thanti TV was ranked second in weeks 3 and 7 and ranked third in weeks 1,2,4 5 and 6. The channel had 193,582 impressions during the first seven weeks of 2018.

    News 7 Tamil was the fourth most watched Tamil News channel with 129,361 impressions during weeks 1 to 7 of 2018.  The channel was ranked fourth between weeks 1 to 4 and 6 and 7 of 2017. In week 5 of 2017 the channel was ranked fifth. Sun News was the fifth most watchedchannel with 96,478 impressions during the first seven weeks of 2018. The channel was present in 6 of 7 weeks of 2018 among BARC’s weekly lists of 5 most watched Tamil news channels. Sun News exited the list in week 7 of 2017 to be replaced by News18 Tamil Nadu. Whilst in the top 5 Tamil news channels list, Sun News had weekly impressions of 96,478.

    Telugu News

    Four channels have been among BARC’s top 5 Telugu news channels during all the first 7 weeks of 2018, but with some shuffling in ranks. The biggest upset seems to be TV9 Telugu, which dropped to rank 2 in week 7 of 2018 from the first rank that it had held during the first six weeks of 2018. The second ranked NTV Telugu clambered to the first rank in week 7 of 2018.

    During the period under review, TV9 Telugu was the most watched Telugu news channel with 345,162 impressions, followed by NTV Telugu with 293,500 impressions. TV 5 News was the third most watched Telugu News channel during the first 7 weeks of 2018 with 232,425 impressions. The channel was ranked third for the first 5 weeks of 2018, only to drop to rank 4 in week 6 and to drop even further to rank 5 in week 7 of 2018.

    V6 News was the fourth most watched Telugu News channel during the first 7 weeks of 2018 with 214,283 impressions. The channel’s viewership seems to be improving with time. It was ranked fifth during the first four weeks of 2018, it climbed to rank 4 in week 5 and to rank 3 in weeks 6 and 7 of 2018.

    Two channels –  ABN Andhra Jy oti and 10 TV were also present in BARC’s list of top 5 Telugu news channels for four and three weeks each respectively.

    Kannada News

    In the Kannada news space, the ranks in terms of viewership seem to be well defined. The first four weeks saw the same news channels appear in the same rank and order for the five ranks. From week 5 of 2018, rank five has been a contest between two channels.

    TV9 Kannada, Public TV, Suvarna News and News18 Kannada were the first, second, third and fourth most watched Kannada news channels respectively during the first 7 weeks of 2018. At first rank was TV9 Kannada with 484,427 impressions, followed by Public TV with 321,758 impressions during the period under consideration. Suvarna News was ranked third with 170,233 impressions followed by News 18 with 120,760 impressions.

    BTV was ranked fifth during weeks 1 to 4 and week 6 of 2018. It exited BARC’s top 5 list in weeks 5 and 7 of 2018 to be replaced by Dighvijay 24×7 News.

    Malayalam News

    Four channels have consistently appeared in BARC’s top 5 Malayalam news channels list during the first 7 weeks of 2018. Three of them – Asianet News (235,849 impressions), Manorama News (107,903 impressions) and Mathrubhumi News (82,472 impressions) have been ranked first, second and third respectively in BARC’s lists during the first 7 weeks of 2018. The fourth channel – News 18 Kerala (36,972 impressions) has seen a small upset – it had moved down to rank 5 in week 7 of 2017 from the fourth rank that it consistently held during the first six weeks of 2018. Media One TV was in BARC’s list for weeks 1, 2, 4, 5 at rank 5 of 2018. It has climbed up a rank to fourth in week 7 of 2018. Two other channels – Janam TV (week 3 of 2018) and People TV (week 6 of 2018) were present in BARC’s weekly lists of top 5 Malayalam News channels during the period under review).

    Also Read :

    Demystifying news television viewership in 2017

    No change in channels in across genres list in first week of 2018

  • News7 Tamil to launch on 19 October

    News7 Tamil to launch on 19 October

    MUMBAI: A new Tamil news channel is all set to debut in the state of Tamil Nadu. News7 is expected to launch on 19 October 2014. VV Group that is involved in the mining industry, is the backer of the channel.

     

    Former Al Jazeera bureau head Nick Walshe has been got on board as the chairman of its editorial board. According to reports, Bhagwan Singh from Deccan Chronicle is also a part of the editorial board. Rajesh Sundaram is the editor and news head. The 24 hour news channel will enter the state that already has an abundant number of Tamil news channels.

     

    It goes with the tagline ‘Global news channel for the Tamil diaspora’. The VV Group is into activities such as mining, cement, paints, oil and others.  The company under which the channel is listed is Alliance Broadcast. Advertisements from the channel, that was inaugurated earlier this month by AR Rahman, say that it will be the first Tamil news channel with a distinct Tamil perspective on world news.

     

    Currently the channels that broadcast news in Tamil are Sun News, Seithigal, Puthiya Thalaimurai, Thanthi TV, Captain News, Lotus News and Sathiyam TV.

     

    It is broadcasting from Intelsat 17.

  • Puthiya Thalaimurai turns two; targets Rs 100 crore revenue

    Puthiya Thalaimurai turns two; targets Rs 100 crore revenue

    MUMBAI: Two years is when most infants just begin to walk, but this is one baby which has given its older and tougher cousins not just a run for their money, but has also left them far behind.  Tamil news channel Puthiya Thalaimurai (PT) TV  turned two on 24 August and its management used the occasion to cosmetically change its look.

     

    That’s how leaders behave, and PT TV has bested the likes of Sun News  and Jaya News – both with strong political backing. While the second is at the No 2 spot, the latter is at third place.

     

    Let’s take a look at some TAM numbers around PT TV. In the CS 25-30 SEC A & B demographic, it has been ruling the chart for the first 27 weeks of this year with GRPs ranging from 19 to 51. (From week 28 it is calculated in terms of GVTs).

     

    “The competition didn’t take us seriously then,” says NGMC group CEO RBU Shyam Kumar talking about the time when the channel surpassed Sun News’ viewership.

     

    The fresh entrant was launched in 2011 by RP Satyanarayanan, president of New Generation Media Corporation (NGMC) with an investment of approximately Rs 100 crore. Independence Day of that year saw the implementation of a Rs 7 crore marketing campaign with special emphasis on outdoor marketing proclaiming the message ‘Unmai Udanuk Udan’ which means ‘truth as it happens’.

    Shyam Kumar believes PT TV will break even by next year

     

    The team of 110 people has grown to 300 with S Srinivasan as the current director of news and M Ramasubramaniam as the executive editor. As compared to others in this space, PT TV says,  whose journalists are old and are normally seen wearing chunky gold jewelry and plaits with saris, its anchors and reporters are young and sport snazzy outfits.

     

    With the headquarters located at Chennai and four bureaus in Coimbatore, Tiruchirappalli, Madurai and Delhi, the channel has five OB vans that cover news ‘live’ for the channel which other channels usually report from the studio.

     

    The channel has also focused on getting the Tamil audience tuned to international affairs and has tie-ups with stringers at places having the Tamil diaspora such as Malaysia, Singapore, Dubai and soon there will be one in London. It is available on cable TV, DTH and internet.

     

    A long list of advertisers are on the channel including national ones such as Samsung, Hyundai, Nestle, Euroka forbes, Godrej, Bajaj auto, Intel, Toyota, IT and local favourites like Pothys and Nalli Silk Saris.

     

    “You name it and we have it,” says 4th Dimension Media Solutions CEO B Shankar confidently, that handles the ad sales for PT  TV. “Brands have always reached out to us than the other way round,” he adds and also mentioned that the only name he didn’t have was HUL.  A 10 second slot on the channel would cost advertisers anywhere between Rs 1500 to Rs 2000 which is set to increase by 30-40 per cent once the ad cap comes into effect on 1 October.

     

    Expectations are that it will break even by next year.

     

    The SRM group was raided by the income tax department a couple of months ago and along with it was PT TV. While reports were that unaccounted income of  Rs 6 crore popped up during the raid,  Shyam Kumar denies this saying it came out clean as a whistle.

     

    Something that the channel is very proud of is the events that they conduct in the state. ‘Veetuku Oru Vignyani’ (a scientist for every house) was a science competition for school students and two winners will be showcasing their inventions at Malaysia at the Malaysia Science Exhibition. An annual ‘Puthiya Thalaimurai Tamilian Awards’ is organised on the lines of the NDTV’s ‘Indian of the year’ award, that promotes the unsung heroes of Tamil Nadu.  ‘Uzhavakku Uyir Uttu Ulavarku Vazhvoottu’ was their their event for providing inspiration and guidance to farmers who were otherwise driven to commit suicide. “These events have made us stand apart,” says Kumar.

     

    The programming mix is claimed to be focused on social awareness and not dependent on popular items such as cinema. The channel has a news and  feature programming departments each,  which turn over the content daily.

     

    A special feature is that all of PT TV’s show titles are quotes of freedom fighter Bharathiar. Some of its shows include ‘Nerpadu Pesu’- a daily news hour discussion, ‘Agni Paritchai’- a talk show, ‘Roudram Pazhagu’ – a show on social evils and ‘Aayudam Seivom’ – scientific innovations by common man. New programs are in the pipeline such as ‘Saamanyan odu oru naal’ which translates to ‘one day with a common man’.

     

    The channel is soon to launch a GEC with the name of Pudhu Yugam and a national English news channel is also in the pipeline. For now, PT TV seems to have captured the Tamil news market.

  • Sun TV to up ad rates from 1 April

    Sun TV to up ad rates from 1 April

    MUMBAI: Catching the signals of a strong rebound in the Indian economy, Sun TV Network has decided to increase its advertising rates just five quarters after its earlier revision.

    The Kalanithi Maran-owned South Indian media conglomerate, which had increased it advertising rates starting 1 January last year (after a gap of almost two years), has announced a further 8-32 per cent hike across its Tamil channels.

    Effective 1 April, flagship channel Sun TV and the other Tamil channels – KTV, Sun Music, Sun News, Chutti and Adhitya – will hike their ad rates.

    “The effective ad rate hike will be 15 per cent across the Tamil market. Tamil Nadu contributes 45 per cent of Sun Network’s total ad revenues. Sun will continue to maintain a healthy ad growth in the next fiscal, both from volumes and from the rate hike,” says a market source.

    The rate hike will be effective across the slot fees (broadcast fees) received from content producers.

    Sun TV Network will also announce soon ad rate hike across the other three south markets. Sun has 14 channels in these three language markets including Gemini (Telugu), Udaya (Kannada) and Surya (Malayalam).

    The overall effective ad rate hike across the four markets would be in the region of 13-15 per cent, according to market estimates.

    Sun had last revised its ad rates across its channels between 10-33 per cent from January 2010. This resulted in an effective hike of 13 per cent, according to market estimates.

    For the first nine-month period ended December, Sun reported a total income of Rs 14.93 billion, up 43.93 per cent from the year-ago period.

    Shares of Sun TV closed Tuesday at Rs 409.65, down marginally by 0.24 per cent in a bearish market, as it recovered after Monday‘s 11 per cent tumble due to rumours of CBI investigation on alleged links with Kalaignar TV, which was reported to have received Rs 2.14 billion as loan from DB Realty. The stock touched an intraday high of Rs 433.15 and a low of Rs 402.05 on the BSE.

  • Sun TV to turn pay from 2 December; priced at Rs 12

    Sun TV to turn pay from 2 December; priced at Rs 12

    MUMBAI: Southern Indian broadcast powerhouse Sun TV Ltd will switch its flagship channel Sun TV to the pay mode starting 2 December.

    The channel has been tagged at a price of Rs 12 per month per subscriber for the cable operators to access the channel.

    The Kalanithi Maran promoted network is also likely to turn its Malayalam language entertainment channel Surya TV pay in the near future.

    At present, it has three pay channels – KTV, Sun News and Sun Music. But in Chennai, which is a conditional access system (CAS) market, the consumers can view the pay channels through a set-top box (STB). But all these pay channels are free-to-air.

    Ahead of the implementation of CAS in the southern zones of the three metros — Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai — Sun TV accepted the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) fixing a common price of Rs 5/- per channel per subscriber per month (excluding taxes).

    However, the pay channel price cap is not applicable in Chennai, which is already a CAS-driven market.

    The Sun TV scrip opened the trading day at Rs 1210.25 and closed at Rs1219.50 and touched a high of Rs 1249.

  • Sun TV sets IPO price band at Rs 730-875

    Sun TV sets IPO price band at Rs 730-875

    MUMBAI: Sun TV has fixed the price band of its initial public offering (IPO) at Rs 730 to 875 per share. The issue will open for subscription on 3 April and close on 7 April.

    The company aims to raise Rs 6.03 billion at the top end of the price band. Sun TV will offer a fresh equity issue of 68,89,000 equity shares of Rs 10 each for cash, to be made entirely through the book building route.

    The issue will constitute 10 per cent of the fully diluted post issue paid-up capital of the company. Following the issue, the shareholding of Sun TV Ltd principal promoter Kalanithi Maran will reduce to 89.99 per cent from 99.99 per cent (61,999,969 shares).

    The company has mandated Kotak Mahindra Capital Company and DSP Merril Lynch for the issue. The proceeds of the issue will be used to beef up its subsidiaries, launch more television channels and construct its own corporate office. Investments will also be made in setting up studio facilities and up-linking infrastructure, purchasing new equipment and upgrading the existing ones.

    Sun TV Ltd is part of the Sun Network, which runs 14 TV channels, four FM Radio stations, two daily newspapers and four magazines. Sun TV Ltd comprises four Tamil channels — Sun TV, Sun Music, KTV and Sun News — and two Malayalam channels — Surya TV and Kiran TV.