Tag: Times now

Times Now, Republic TV on-air ratings squabble continues

BENGALURU: The puerile on-air ratings squabble between one of the biggest names in Indian media Bennett Coleman’s Times Group’s Indian English News channel Times Now and the startup Republic TV now led by the former’s editor in chief, Arnab Goswami, continued without abating.

As is their wont every Thursday after the release of Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) ratings data, both the biggest players in the Indian English Television News genre continued boasting about how each was number one in the genre. This spat has been going on since the very first week that Republic TV data was published – this was data for week 19 of 2017 (Saturday, 6 May 2017 to Friday 12 May 2017).

Each channel slices and dices BARC weekly data for the genre in the manner that makes it appear the best and touts the results on its respective channel.

So how did they fare in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 English News channels for week 38 of 2017 (Saturday, 16 September 2017 to Friday, 22 September 2017) today? Let’s take a dekko at the BARC ratings numbers for All India (U+R) : NCCS AB : Males 22+ Individuals. Based on BARC’s demographics, Republic TV has led the English News genre right from the very first week of its launch – it is now 20 weeks that it has held the pole position for.

Republic TV continued to rule the top 5 channels in the English News genre list for week 38 of 2017 with 0.904 million weekly impressions, higher than the previous week’s 0.871 million weekly impressions. Times Now’s ratings also increased in week 38 as compared to week 37 by 20,000 impressions. The channel scored 0.791 million weekly impressions in week 38 as compared to 0.771 million weekly impressions in week 37.

CNN News 18 was placed third in week 38 of 2107 with a steady 0.347 million weekly impressions – the channel was placed fourth in the previous week with approximately the same weekly impressions. India Today Television lost a rank and 4,000 weekly impressions in week 38 as compared to week 37 of 2017. The channel notched fourth rank with 0.343 million weekly impressions in week 38 as compared to 0.347 million weekly impressions and third rank in week 37 of 2017.

NDTV 24×7 reentered the list and completed the top five channels quintet in week 38 of 2017 at rank 5 with 0.331 million weekly impressions. In week 37, it was BBC World News that was ranked 5 with the same number of weekly impressions – 0.331 million.

September 28, 2017
English News ratings’ slide continues although Republic TV viewership improves slightly

BENGALURU: The Arnab Goswami headed Indian English News channel Republic TV has been leading the genre in terms of viewership right from week 19 of 2017, the week the channel was launched. Republic TV started with a bang – it had garnered 2.117 million weekly impressions as per Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly list of top 5 English News channels All India (U+R): NCCS AB: Males 22+ Individuals in week 19 of 2017. The channel continued to lead the English News genre in week 37 of 2017 (Saturday, 9th September 2017 to Friday, 15th September 2017) with 871,000 weekly impressions, much better than the nadir of 854,000 weekly impressions in the previous week. Though Republic TV gained 17,000 more viewers in week 37, its other genre peers, except CNN News 18, lost ratings and the combined weekly impressions of the top 5 English News channels in week 37 of 2017 fell to 2.669 million weekly impressions which was lower than the previous week’s combined ratings of 2.76 million.

The gap between Republic TV and runner up Times Now widened to about 10,000 impressions as the latter recorded 771,000 weekly impressions in week 37 of 2017as compared to 813,000 weekly impressions in week 36. India Today Television also lost viewership in week 37 of 2017. The channel recorded 349,000 weekly impressions in week 37 of 2017 compared to 453,000 weekly impressions in week 36. CNN News 18 climbed to fourth place in week 37 of 2017 with 347,000 weekly impressions, better than rank 5 and the 310,000 weekly impressions in week 36 of 2017. BBC World News completed the quintet in week 37 of 2017 with 331,000 weekly impressions. The channel replaced week 36’s fourth placed NDTV24x7, which exited the top 5 English News channels list in week 37. Please refer to the figure below.

The average ratings of the top 5 channels in the English News genre between weeks 1 to 37 (except week 21 of 2017) were 2.466 million weekly impressions. The highest combined ratings of the top five channels from the English News genre were in week 11 of 2017 at 4.897 million weekly impressions, while the lowest were in week 2 of 2017 at 1.179 million weekly impressions.

September 21, 2017
Republic TV, Aaj Tak continue to lead genres as news viewership falls

BENGALURU: Republic TV recorded its lowest viewership since its launch in week 36 of 2017 (Saturday, 2 September 2017 to Friday, 8 September 2017). The channel garnered 854,000 weekly impressions, lower than the earlier low of 868,000 weekly impressions it had scored in weeks 25 and 27 of 2017 according to Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly list of top 5 English News channels All India (U+R): NCCS AB: Males 22+ Individuals. The channel has started with a bang in week 19 with 2.117 million weekly impressions. At present, ignoring ratings for week 21, Republic TV’s average weekly ratings since launch until week 36 of 2017 (except for week 21) are 1.141 million weekly impressions, hence its week 36 ratings are well below its par ratings.

In the Hindi News genre, the genre leader for 35 of the 36 weeks of 2017 has been Aaj Tak. The only week that it lost the pole position was in week 6 of 2017 to India TV. Aaj Tak was ranked second in that week. For week 36 of 2017, Aaj Tak scored 137.519 million weekly impressions according to BARC list of top 5 Hindi News channels: HSM (U+R) : NCCS All : 15+ Individuals. The channel’s average weekly impressions in 2017 until week 36 are 122.870 million, hence its week 36 weekly impressions score is well above its par.

In week 36, the combined weekly impressions of the top 5 English News gene channels were 2.760 million, lower than the 2.942 million weekly impressions of the previous week or the 2.979 million weekly impressions of week 34. The average combined weekly impressions of the top 5 English News channels in 2017 until week 36 (except week 21) were 2.460 million, and week 36 impressions for the genre are well above the 36 week par. The genre’s highest combined weekly impression of the top 5 channels at 4.897 million impressions were in week 11 – the week during which election results for five states were announced. The second highest ratings by the top 5 English News channels were 4.282 million impressions in week 19, the week that Republic TV was launched.

In the case of Hindi News channels, the genre had scored its highest weekly impressions in week 35, with the top 5 channels having combined weekly impressions of 738.482 million. This was the week that saw the reportage of the Ram-Rahim case judgment day – Monday, 28 August 2017 attracting record-breaking viewership. Week 36 has seen the top 5 channels combined weekly impressions plunge to 564.769 million weekly impressions, but still well above the 36 week average of 492.903 million.

Please refer to the figure below for average ratings of the top five English News channels during the first 36 weeks of 2017 (excluding data for week 21 of 2017):

Please refer to the figure below for the average ratings of the top 5 channels of the Hindi News Genre during the first 36 weeks of 2017.

As mentioned by us earlier, News about the fate of godman Ram Rahim on Monday, 28 August 2017 was one of the most watched events on news television in the recent past in India. Viewership of the Hindi News genre grew 2.1 times from 121.5 million impressions (the average viewership for the previous four Mondays’) to 256.1 million impressions on Monday, 28 August 2017. The English News genre grew by 46 percent from 482 Impressions ‘000s (Av Impressions for the last 4 Mondays) to 703 Impressions ‘000s on Monday 28 August 2017.

September 18, 2017
Republic TV leads even as ratings fall

BENGALURU: The Arnab Goswami-led Indian English News channel Republic TV continued to lead its genre in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly list of top 5 English News channels (All India (U+R) : NCCS AB : Males 22+ Individuals) in week 35 of 2017 (Saturday, 26 August 2017 to Friday, 1 September 2017).

The channel has been the genre leader right from the first week since its launch on Saturday, 6 May 2017 (Week 19 of 2017). Two channels lost viewership in week 35 as compared to week 34, while the other three gained viewership in terms of weekly impressions.

Though Republic TV topped the English News genre, it obtained only 0.899 million weekly impressions in week 35 as compared to the 1.048 million weekly impressions in week 34 or the 2.117 million weekly impressions in the week of its launch. Following on the heels of Republic TV was the previous genre topper Times Now with 0.868 million weekly impressions at second place in week 35. In week 34 of 2017, Times Now had obtained 0.836 million weekly impressions.

Times Now was followed by India Today Television at the third place in week 35 with 0.489 million impressions, better than the 0.437 million impressions in week 34. NDTV 24×7 climbed back to fourth place of week 33 in week 35. The channel scored 0.378 million impressions as compared to the 0.325 million impressions in week 34. CNN News 18 completed the quintet at fifth place with 0.308 million impressions in week 35, lower than the 0.333 million impressions in week 34.

September 7, 2017
Republic TV continues to lead English News genre for 16th consecutive week

BENGALURU: The Arnab Goswamin-led Indian English news channel Republic TV continued to lead the genre for the sixteenth week in a row (fifteenth, if numbers for week 21 are not considered) in week 34 (Saturday, 19 August 2017 to Friday, 25 August 2017).

Republic TV was launched on 6 May 2017, the first day of week 19 of 2017 and has been leading the genre since. The channel garnered 1.048 million weekly impressions, in week 34, almost the same as the 1.044 million weekly impressions it had in the previous week.

As reported by Indiantelevision.com earlier, just a couple of weeks after the launch of Republic TV – in week 21, its peer Indian English news channels had withdrawn their watermarks owing to which BARC was unable to fairly measure ratings for the English News genre – the rebelling 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, not a compliance agency. For one week ratings of Indian English News channels were not published by BARC, until the erring channels returned to the BARC audience measurement fold.

For a change, this Thursday, just post 1100 am when BARC reveals ratings to channels, Times Now did mention the breakup in percentage terms its overall relative share as has been the norm. The channel just ran a still showing that it had a relative share of 37 percent. It’s bête noire, Republic TV, however did give a breakup of primetime ratings from its perspective. Both channels however did continue their traditional ticker tapes boasts and claims, while running each other down.

Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) data for Top 5 English News channels (All India (U+R) : NCCS AB : Males 22+ Individuals) for week 34 reveals that two of the top 5 English News channels lost viewership in week 34 as compared to week 33. While Times Now lost ratings, CNN News 18 and NDTV 24×7 interchanged fourth and fifth places in week 34, with the latter losing viewership. Overall, the genre seems to have reported lower viewership if one were to go by the combined weekly impressions of the top 5 English News channels in week 34 ad compared to week 33. The combined weekly impressions of the top five English News channels were 2.979 million in week 34 as compared to 3.091 million in week 33.

Republic TV’s closest competitor Times Now lost over 203,000 weekly impressions at the reported 0.836 million weekly impressions in week 34 as compared to the 1.039 million weekly impressions in week 33. India Today Television retained its third place in the list with 0.437 million weekly impressions in week 34 as compared to 0.366 million weekly impressions in week 33.

CNN News 18 was at fourth place in week 34 with 0.333 million weekly impressions as compared to fifth place in week 33 with 0.290 weekly impressions. NDTV 24×7 was fifth in the week with 0.325 million weekly impressions as compared to 0.352 million weekly impressions and fourth place in week 33.

August 31, 2017
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:

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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August 28, 2017
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

Republic's unstoppable Number 1 run continues. Thank you, viewers. #RepublicNumber1 pic.twitter.com/0BmH8IwfCX

— Republic (@republic) August 24, 2017

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.

Look what the Republic is actually watching. Source: BARC|All India 1MN+| NCCS AB Males 22+| Wk 33 '17 pic.twitter.com/VReOIV4fzp

— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) 24 August 2017

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

August 24, 2017
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

August 18, 2017
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.

August 4, 2017
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

August 3, 2017