PM Modi's address on Aaj Tak beaten by TV9 Bharatvarsh's Russia-Ukraine war coverage

In what could be a clear hint for news channels chasing ratings, a high-octane address by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at India Today Conclave on March 18 was beaten hands down by the Russia-Ukraine war coverage.

According to the BARC data released for the rolling Week 12, Russia-Ukraine coverage on TV9 Bharatvarsh garnered more viewership than PM Modi’s address on Aaj Tak on Saturday between 8.17 pm to 8.49 pm.

PM Modi’s address garnered 767 AMA (‘000s) for Aaj Tak in the age group of 15+ years across all NCCS in Hindi-speaking markets.

On the other hand, TV9 Bharatvarsh, which was showing the Russia-Ukraine conflict, garnered 860 AMA (‘000s).

“These kinds of rating numbers will certainly prove to be a deterrent for news channels from spending on high-octane programming and marketing of any special event. Aaj Tak has every right to claim that PM Modi’s address did well in unrolled data but as an advertiser, we get rolled numbers and we spend basis that data. Going by the four-week rolling reporting of BARC, all the news channels will show war hysteria more and more to win the rat(ing) race,” a senior executive at a large FMCG brand told BestMediaInfo.com.

Even on DD Freedish, the free-to-air platform owned by Prasar Bharati with 43 million households, largely the beneficiaries of the centre’s welfare schemes, viewers were hooked to the war content instead of PM Modi’s address.

In an indication that the government’s own platform is failing to communicate its message to the beneficiaries, war content garnered 357 AMA (‘000) on the free platform, up 44% from 248 AMA (‘000s) for PM Modi’s address.

Rejoinder: Reacting to the report, TV9 Bharatvarsh said that Aaj Tak has climbed to number 2 position in the lastest week from No. 3 position in previous weeks. "For the 8 pm slot in consideration, Aaj Tak channel has been 39 percent below TV9 Bharatvarsh as per the last 52-week average. TV9 Bharatvarsh has enjoyed an appointment viewing through war coverage for the last one year for the said slot," the channel added.

The ratings for the news genre were resumed last year on March 17 following an order by I&B secretary Apurva Chandra.

Also read: News broadcasters accuse BARC India of hiding behind excuses, refusing to release unrolled data

The idea of a four-week rolling average, which was intended to reduce the noise level on a weekly basis by the news channels and on the news channels, was alleged to be distorting the viewership data due to faulty algorithms.

Following a letter written by the News Broadcasters and Digital Association (NBDA) president Avinash Pandey demanding the rollback in December last year, the majority of BARC Board members approved the rollback in late January.

However, highly placed sources alleged that India Society of Advertisers (ISA) president Sunil Kataria blocked and delayed the move for reasons unclear to several stakeholders.

“Unfortunately, the government is silent on this. If they show interest, things can move faster,” a senior executive from one of the stakeholders, who did not want to be named, had told BestMediaInfo.com last week.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com