BENGALURU: Last week on Thursday, just post 11 am, the newborn Republic TV and the grand old lady of the English news business Times Now, starting flashing BARC data, each claiming the number one spot in viewership. The channels have continued this on-air spat once again. Republic TV says that it has done it once again, if one were to go by the Indian ratings monitor Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) numbers flashed by it on the channel for week 23 (Saturday, 3 June 2017 to Friday, 10 June 2017).
Republic TV claims that it has been number one across all segments in week 23. It claims 147 per cent greater viewership than Times Now across all segments across India and 247 per cent greater viewership than Times Now at super primetime.
In the meantime, Times Now has been flashing on its channel that it is the number one in the English news genre with a relative viewership of 42 per cent while putting Republic TV at second place with a relative viewership of 31 per cent. Times Now puts CNN News 18 9 per cent India Today TV’s relative share at 7 per cent, and NDTV 24x7 at 5 per cent each.
Republic TV shared viewership details of the other peers in the English News genre: Times Now-28.8 per cent; CNN News 18-12 per cent; India Today News-11 per cent; NDTV-19 per cent; News X-2.5 per cent.
“The viewership debate is over, we are number 1. It is now one month since we have been in operation and we have now become undisputed leaders in this genre. The game has just begun and we are now absolutely unstoppable. We will take the game to the next level,” declared Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami last week, during a live telecom with Republic TV anchor Hariharan aired on his channel, just after 11:15AM.
It may be recalled that in a coordinated move, English News channels had pulled out of BARC on 18 May, only to return to the BARC fold on from midnight of 26 May. English News channels backed by the News Broadcast Association had stripped their signals of BARC audio watermarks. The NBA had requested BARC not to publish Republic TV’s ratings, alleging that the channel has resorted to rampant multiple LCN placements on cable TV networks across the country.
