BARC's software might comes into play with analysis on news TV

The rating agency shows rare insights on television audience viewership measurement during the Nepal earthquake and the Salman Khan case

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | May 14, 2015

With exclusive analyses on television news consumption behaviour, Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India has used the might of its BMW software that helps analyse and gain rare insights on television audience viewership measurement and analytics in times of hell, distraught and celebrations.

During the three weeks that BARC ratings' existence, India witnessed two major incidents – the earthquake in Nepal and the Salman Khan hit-and-run case, wherein the entire media contributed to creating awareness and sensitivity around such shattering incidents – natural and manmade.

Using the published data for three weeks (Weeks 16, 17 and 18), BARC India has shown how tremors were felt in television viewership on such big news.

Hindi News

Aaj Tak has been the market leader for all three weeks, closely followed by ABP News, among top eight news channels.

Ratings of Hindi news channels reached at peak on April 25 (day of the Nepal earthquake), while the ripple effect was observed for the next three days. On May 6, there was surge in viewership due to news on the Salman Khan case court verdict.

As can be seen in the graph below, news channels started peaking around 11:45 am on April 25 (Nepal earthquake).

ABP News, as seen in the graph below, takes over No. 1 position (Salman Khan story) on May 6.

April 25, 2015 – Earthquake News

Increased viewership on April 25 is visible from Delhi and Gujarat for all Hindi news channels.

The Teleview Report has shown the channels' breaking news on Nepal earthquake: ABP News at 11:44:53, Aaj Tak at 11:44:54, India TV at 11:45:50 and Zee News at 11:46:30.

The Reach Grid for April 25 shows maximum reach for Aaj Tak, followed by ABP News.

May 6 & 8 – Salman Case

It is interesting to note that ABP News' ratings were the highest on May 6, whereas Aaj Tak gained on May 8.

English News

In all three weeks, Times Now remained the clear market leader with around 38 per cent channel share in the latest week.

English news channels reached at peak in ratings on April 25 (Nepal earthquake) and on May 6 in viewership due to the Salman Khan news. Though unlike Hindi news channels, higher traction was seen on May 6.

Clearly, English news channels got less traction as compared to Hindi news channels on April 25 for the Nepal earthquake news.

English news channels reached at peak post 4 pm on May 6, with different peaks for different channels as seen under:

The Teleview Report for April 25 shows that CNN-IBN broke the news at11:45:52 am, followed by Times Now at 11:46:40 am, NDTV 24x7 at 11:46:43 am and Headlines Today at 11:48:43 am but Times Now's persistence with the story gave them the viewership numbers.

(For almost a minute after CNN IBN broke news – other 3 channels were running ads as seen above)

Over a minute later, at 11:47:17 am all channels were showing the news.

The Ratings '000s Grid shows Times Now getting traction on April 25 and May 8, which was higher for CNN-IBN on May 6.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com