Analysis: When Mumbai's downpour brought a deluge of ratings for News Channels
BestMediaInfo.com brings an exclusive analysis of BARC data on the consumption behaviour of television news when the heavy downpour paralysed entire Mumbai on Friday, June 19
BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | June 30, 2015
Last week's torrential rains in Mumbai that brought the so-called maximum city to a halt also served as a litmus test for the robustness of BARC India's television rating system. Earlier, BARC's software might was quite evident during the Nepal earthquake and the court's verdict on Salman Khan in the third week of its launch itself.
BestMediaInfo.com brings an exclusive analysis on television news consumption behaviour during last week's torrential downpour in Mumbai. The rare insights fetched through the BMW software of BARC India indicates the robustness of the system involved in delivering television audience viewership measurement and analytics.
Friday, June 19, was the day when torrential rains wreaked havoc in Mumbai and its suburbs leading to cancellation of local train services that left thousands of commuters stranded. And television news channels were the primary source of information for Mumbaikars as people were glued to their TV screens for regular updates on how the rains were affecting their lives.
In Week 24 (June 13 – June 19), there was almost 60% spike in overall ratings for News Channels (English, Hindi and Marathi News) wherein ABP Majha had the highest ratings in the Mumbai market, followed by Aaj Tak and Zee 24 Taas.
Further analysis of data shows that the highest coverage (reach) increase was for Hindi News channels in the Mumbai market, and the highest time spent per viewer (ATSV) increase was seen for Marathi News channels.
During the downpour on Friday, which was also the last day of Week 24, there was over 400% jump in ratings for all News channels combined wherein Marathi News channels were on top among all the News channels compared to the previous three Fridays.
On the other hand, coverage of Hindi news channels were highest on Friday.
The average time spent per viewer on Friday when compared with the rest of the week was higher for any channel than the rest of the six days.
Analysing the data considering time bands across the day throws more interesting insights. There was a clear rise in Rat 000 (sum) on Friday of Week 24 for all News channels combined in Mumbai market. In the 7 - 11 AM time band, the increase was to the tune of 480% compared to the previous weeks.
The maximum ratings in Mumbai market on Friday was for Zee News, though the morning peak started with ABP News.
Among Marathi news channels, Zee 24 Taas peaked in morning hours till 0900 hours but ABP Majha took over in the afternoon from 1330 - 1830 hours.
Times Now had clear-cut peaks throughout the day on Friday in Mumbai market leaving all the other English News channels behind.