MUMBAI: The ratings war is well and truly joined. Three days after NDTV's new business channel NDTV Profit asserted it had toppled market leader CNBC-TV18 in viewership among business news channels, comes the riposte.

A release issued by the business news channel leader reaffirms a position it had taken at the outset in response to the assertions made by NDTV Profit of overtaking CNBC-TV18 if a C&S 4+ all India market was taken as the sampling TG. Quoting the latest TAM data (22-29 January), CNBC claims pole position among English news channels at 36 per cent channel share among of 25+ males in SEC AB. That is even ahead of Profit's English news channel sibling NDTV 24x7, which has a 33 per cent share. And where does Profit figure in this listing? In the fourth position with a 9 per cent channel share just behind Headlines Today at 11 per cent.

Interestingly, CNBC's argument is validated by Ravi Kiran, managing director, West/South Starcom Mediavest, who says, "As a media planner, this (the TG that CNBC has used) represents to me the core viewership of an English news channel."

Elaborating further on the trends the data threw, Sai Kumar, vice-president, CNBC-TV18 says, "Also noteworthy is the potential of the business television space; going by the fact that within a month of its launch NDTV Profit has managed to get a 9 per cent share. We are confident, that Awaaz, our consumer channel in Hindi will exploit this potential even further.