aMapDTH: News viewership trend during Japan's double tragedy

International English news channels had higher reach on DTH over analog than Indian English and Hindi news channels.

Rajat Arora | Delhi | March 18, 2011

When it comes to international events Indian viewers turn on to international English news channels and these channels are mostly watched on DTH platform in comparison to analog, indicates a recent aMap study on Japan tragedy.

Japan's double tragedy of the 8.8 magnitude earthquake and tsunami attracted high viewership in India on both Hindi and English news channels. The study says that while the shares of Hindi News channels increased, it is the English News Channels that saw more viewers' coming- particularly the international English news channels.

The reach in absolute terms for Indian English News channels was much higher on analog; however, the reach for International English News channels on DTH exceeded the analog reach.

The reach of international news channels on 11^th March, the day when tsunami and earthquake hit Japan, was .7 on analog and 1.7 on DTH. See the chart below:

The Indian English news channels had reach of 15.7% on analog and 4.2% on DTH platform. See the chart below:

Hindi news channels also saw an increase in their readership. On analog Hindi news channels had reach of 32.5% and their reach on DTH was 22.1%. See the chart below:

Briefing BestMediaInfo.com on this study, Jiniti Shah, Vice-President, aMap, said, "While there was increased viewership during the Japan tragedy on all news channels, International News Channels (English) increased in viewership by nearly 6 times on the DTH platform over the average – Global news of this sort is preferred to be watched on international news channels(English). Accessibility induces tune ins on the DTH platform"

Rajat.Arora@BestMediaInfo.com

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