MUMBAI: The viewership of news broadcasters is very much dependent on events. And, this has become quite evident in week seven of Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) as news channels failed to maintain the shine, tumbling largely in impressions compared to week six.
In the current week, Hindi news channels declined by over 20 per cent, whereas English news channels fell by nearly 40 per cent in terms of weekly impressions as compared to the past week.
News channels saw a rise in viewership by over 14 per cent in week six specifically due to the Delhi Legislative Assembly elections.
Dominating the chart for the seventh week straight, TV Today Network’s Hindi news channel Aaj Tak has declined by over 30 per cent to 101399 weekly impressions in week seven as compared to 146178 impressions in week six. The channel had gained over 25 per cent of impressions in the past week.
Despite the slump in viewership by over 11 per cent, Network18’s News18 India has climbed one spot up to grab the second position in the list of top five news channels with 90255 weekly impressions as against 108032 in week six. The channel had grown by 7 per cent in terms viewership in the past week.
Following the footsteps of News18 India, both the news channels in Hindi genre – India TV and Zee News, despite a decline in weekly impressions, have ranked at third and position. In week seven, the former fell by over 10 per cent to 88603 weekly impressions versus 99364 in week six, whereas Zee News slowed down by around 19 per cent to 80122 impressions as against 98654 in the previous week.
The most drastic shift was shown by ABP News Network’s Hindi news channel ABP News that fell to fifth from the second position in terms of viewership. The channel tumbled by over 30 per cent to 74713 weekly impressions in week seven as against 108032 impressions in the earlier week of BARC.
ABP News had given a cut-throat competition to Aaj Tak in week six by gaining almost as same as the size of viewership in terms of percentage. It had grown by 25 per cent last week. The channel made into the list of top five channels as it successfully maintained its rural viewership.
Failing to make into the final list of top five, Republic Media Network’s Hindi news channel somehow got featured in the urban section of the Hindi news channels' list. However, Aaj Tak has continued to maintain the top position in both urban and rural segments of Hindi news channels in week seven.
The decline continued in the English segment too as all the five channels in the list fell substantially in terms of viewership. And the most affected channel out of all news channels across genre is Republic Media Network’s Republic TV, which fell by near 50 per cent in the current week as compared to the last week. The channel reported 585 weekly impressions in week seven as compared to 1141 in the previous week.
This week, the other four channels in English news genre maintained their spots. Times News Network’s Times Now ranked at second position fell by 38 per cent to 413 impressions in week seven as compared to 664 weekly impressions in the previous week of BARC.
TV Today Network’s India Today TV, Network18’s CNN News18 and NDTV 24x7 have been ranked at third, fourth and fifth positions respectively on the list. India Today fell by over 30 per cent to 288 impressions as against 415 in week six, CNN News18 by over 23 per cent to 202 impressions versus 263 in the earlier week and NDTV 24x7 by over 29 per cent to 182 weekly impressions from 258 in the last week.
