BENGALURU: Right since its launch in week 19 of 2017, ARG Outlier Media Private Ltd’s Arnab Goswami-headed Republic TV has been the most watched private English news channel. Over the past 23 months since its launch, the channel lost is numero uno private English news channel label only once to Goswami’s former channel Times Now, that was for one week – week 31 of 2018.
In week 16 of 2019 (Saturday, 13 April 2019 to Friday, 19 April 2019, week or period under review) DD India led the list of Top 5 English news channels with 0.607 million weekly impressions as compared to 0.609 million weekly impressions and second rank in week 15. Republic TV was ranked second with 0.597 million weekly impressions as compared to first rank and 0.617 million weekly impressions in week 15. This made Republic TV the most watched private English news channel during the week under review.
At third rank in week 16 of 2019 was Times Now with 0.444 million weekly impressions as compared to 0.432 million weekly impressions in week 15. Indian Today Television climbed up a rank to fourth place in week 16 of 2019 with 0.268 million weekly impressions as compared to fifth rank and 0.257 million weekly impressions in week 15. At fifth rank in week 16 of 2019 was CNN News18 with 0.264 million weekly impressions as compared to fourth rank and 0.259 million weekly impressions.
As a matter of fact, Republic TV was the most watched English news channel in India until pubcaster’s DD India decided to change its programming format to more than 60 percent of English news and sprang a surprise – it crept into Broadcast Audience Research Council of India’ s (BARC) weekly list of top 5 English news channels (All India (U+R) : NCCS AB : Males 22+ Individuals) at second rank in week 4 of 2019 and quickly raced to head the weekly lists in week 5 of 2019. (Saturday, 26 January 2019 to Friday, 1 February 2019). Week 5 of 2019 was the last week that Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) published viewership data on its website before the implementation of the new tariff regime. BARC wanted the viewership to stabilize before publishing data in the public domain and hence viewership data for weeks 6 to 12 of 2019 was not revealed.
On Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) suggestion, BARC recommenced putting up data on its website in week 13 of 2019. DD India continued as the most watched English news channel for weeks 13 and 14 of 2019, until Republic TV upped it to first rank in week 15 of 2019. The tables have turned once again in week 16 of 2019, with DD news taking back the first rank baton and Republic TV breathing down its neck not too far behind at second rank. For now it seems like a ding-dong battle between DD News and Republic TV for the top slot. It is to be noted that both while DD News and Republic TV lost some viewership in the present shakeup, the last three channels gained some ratings with an interchange of ranks four and five in week 16 as compared to week 15 of 2019.
