Operation Sindoor least-watched major event in nine years; whose time is up?

New Delhi: India’s unprecedented Operation Sindoor against Pakistan-based terror camps, followed by four days of heightened tensions between the two countries, was among the least-watched events on television news in the past nine years, as per BARC India data released last week.

Operation Sindoor, the first major event to occur after the implementation of the four-week rolling average for the news genre (since March 2022), managed to push the Hindi news genre’s market share to just 6.2% in Week 18 of BARC India data.

A day-wise breakup shows Hindi news channels capturing 7.7% market share on Wednesday, the first day of Operation Sindoor. This marginally increased to 7.8% on Thursday and 8.1% on Friday.

These daily and weekly market shares for Hindi news during Operation Sindoor pale in comparison to those recorded during major national events in the past nine years.

The ‘Surgical Strike’ conducted after the Uri terror attack, a one-day operation, had pushed the Hindi news genre's market share to 11.3% on September 30, 2016. The weekly share stood at 7.8%.

The Balakot airstrike on February 26, 2019, boosted the genre’s share to 18.6%, with the weekly share rising to 14.2% in Week 9 of BARC data.

In the same week, when IAF fighter pilot and Group Captain Abhinandan Varthaman returned to India after four days of captivity, Hindi news viewership soared to a staggering 24.3% on March 1, 2019.

Likewise, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the first COVID-19 lockdown on March 24, 2020, Hindi news genre’s share climbed to 16.4%, with a weekly share of 13.9%.

BARC India is expected to attribute this low viewership during Operation Sindoor to the rolled data format, which has already been criticised by industry experts as unscientific, particularly in how it averages reach numbers.

However, the message this rolled data sends across the industry is alarming.

In response to BestMediaInfo's recent article headlined “BARC shocker: Even India-Pakistan war fails to deliver ratings for TV news”, several media agency heads noted that viewers appear to be moving away from television news altogether.

“Why can't they accept that they are not news channels anymore?” quipped one agency head.

Former media agency head Nandini Dias said, “The real issue is that news channels have lost credibility. They are no longer independent and simply parrot what is handed to them. It would be interesting to see the ratings of channels not controlled from within India. Right now, India relies on UGCs for news.”

This response is direct evidence of the damage rolled data has caused to the news genre. The entities that blocked the government’s 2023 order to unroll news ratings must acknowledge the harm their actions inflicted.

Advertisers largely invest in News on the basis of perception. Mishandling the ratings system has seriously dented the credibility and commercial viability of the entire news ecosystem.

The news broadcasters who allegedly involved powerful government officials in blocking the unrolling of ratings now have a chance to rise above narrow self-interest and correct their mistakes.

Beyond the ratings debate, this episode raises a broader question: Does declining viewership correlate with a drop in PM Modi’s popularity?

In a widely watched interview, Jan Suraaj founder Prashant Kishor was repeatedly asked this question by veteran interviewer Karan Thapar, each time phrased differently.

Narratives are often shaped by such pointed questioning, which plants seeds of doubt among large sections of the audience. It is up to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to consider whether such narratives could impact public perception and, by extension, the broader polity.