News channels garner major viewership as Indian Army performs surgical strike

Each of the top five Hindi news channels gained about 60 per cent viewership in Week 39. Viewership of English channels doubled compared to a regular week

Raushni Bhagia | Mumbai | October 7, 2016

The viewership of the news and current affairs channels – both English and Hindi – rose significantly during the telecast of the surgical strike carried out by the Indian Army on terrorist launch pads across the Line of Control. The surgical strike was carried out on September 29. The viewership was captured in Week 39 of BARC data, which covered figures between September 24 and 30.

While the ranking in the Hindi news genre remained the same, all the channels gained significant viewership in Week 39. Aaj Tak, which has been leading for quite some time now, clocked 140.55 million Impressions in Week 39. The ratings for the channel have grown by almost 64 per cent compared to Week 37, when it was a regular week for the country with no major events. India TV garnered 110.127 million Impressions in Week 39.

India News at No. 3 clocked 107.195 million Impressions, followed by Zee News (97.935 million Impressions) and ABP News (97.933 million Impressions).

Ashish Bagga

Commenting on the ratings, Ashish Bagga, Group CEO, India Today Group, said, “The dominance and undisputed leadership of Aaj Tak lies in the trust that the viewers have placed on the channel over the years. This trust is based on years of focus on the truth and excellence in journalism. No stone's left unturned when it matters to be SABSE TEZ.”

Of the English news channels, each of the top five channels gained almost double the viewership compared to a regular week. Times Now, still ruling the list, gained 1.084 million Impressions in Week 39. CNN News18 clocked 0.433 million Impressions, while NDTV 24x7 garnered 0.317 million Impressions, followed by India Today Television (0.234 million Impressions) and BBC World News (0.196 million Impressions).

The ratings were high even in Week 38, due to the attack on Indian soldiers in Uri on September 18, 2016.

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