BENGALURU: The combined viewership of the top 5 Hindi news channels across the urban and rural Hindi speaking markets or HSM (U+R) grew 4.7 per cent in week 29 of 2019 (Saturday, 13 July 2019 to Friday, 19 July 2019, week or period under review) as compared to the previous week according to Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) data. Combined weekly viewership of the top 5 Hindi news channels for week 29 of 2019 was 476.727 million weekly impressions as compared to 455.410 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Viewership growth in week 29 of 2019 was led by the rural Hindi speaking market or HSM (R), which grew by 8.9 per cent from week 28. Urban viewership in the Hindi speaking markets grew by 1.5 per cent during the week under review as compared to the previous week. The combined weekly impressions of the top 5 Hindi news channels in HSM (R) was 200.340 million weekly impressions as compared to 183.955 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Combined viewership of top 5 channels in HSM (U) was 277.783 million weekly impressions in week 29 of 2019 was compared to 273.724 million weekly impressions in week 28.
Viewership growth could be attributed to the fact that only the final match of the ICC World Cup was played during the week under review. Since India was not involved in the final of the premier global cricket tourney, interest and hence viewership must have petered out. Earlier, cricket did eat into the viewership of many genres because of overlap of timings with primetime in India. Viewership could climb further with improved weather across the country. All the Hindi news channels in the three BARC weekly lists – HSM (U+R), HSM (R) and HSM (U) in week 29 of 2019 were the same as in week 28 with a slight shuffle in ranks in HSM (R). All three lists were led by Aaj Tak.
Hindi news viewership in HSM (U+R)
All the five channels in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi news channels in HSM (U+R) witnessed growth in viewership. The list and ranks of channels in week 29 of 2019 were the same as in week 28.
Aaj Tak at rank 1 in week 29 of 2019 witnessed a growth of 3.5 per cent at 123.173 million weekly impressions as compared to 118.957 million weekly impressions in week 28. At second rank, News18 India saw viewership grow by 8.3 per cent to 96.403 million weekly impressions in week 29 of 2019 as compared to 88.974 million weekly impressions in week 28.
India TV, ranked three, saw a growth of 2.6 per cent in viewership in week 29 of 2019 at 90.012 million weekly impressions as compared to 87.736 million weekly impressions in week 28. At fourth rank, ABP News witnessed a growth of 6.1 per cent in viewership in week 29 of 2019 at 89.531 million weekly impressions as compared to 84.397 million weekly impressions in the previous week. At fifth rank, Zee News saw viewership grow by 3 per cent in week 29 of 2019 at 77.608 million weekly impressions as compared to 75.346 million weekly impressions in the previous week.
Hindi news viewership in HSM (R)
All the five channels in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi news channels in HSM (R) witnessed growth in viewership. The list and ranks of channels in week 29 of 2019 saw a slight shuffling of rank as compared to week 28.
At rank 1, Aaj Tak witnessed a growth of 7.6 per cent in viewership at 53.977 million weekly impressions in week 29 of 2019 as compared to first rank and 50.149 million weekly impressions in week 28. Continuing on at second rank, ABP News saw a growth of 12.9 per cent in week 29 of 2019 to 41.047 million weekly impressions in HSM (R) as compared to 36.355 million weekly impressions in week 28.
News18 India climbed a place to third rank in week 29 of 2019 with 20.1 per cent viewership growth to 38.136 million weekly impressions as compared to fourth rank and 31.751 million weekly impressions in week 28. India TV climbed down a place in week 29 of 2019 to fourth rank with a growth of 4.1 per cent at 36.078 million weekly impressions as compared to third rank and 34.671 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Retaining fifth rank in week 29 of 2019 was Republic Bharat with a growth of 0.2 per cent at 31.102 million weekly impressions as compared to 31.029 million weekly impressions in week 28.
Hindi news viewership in HSM (U)
All the five channels in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi news channels in HSM (U) witnessed growth in viewership. The list and ranks of channels in week 29 of 2019 were the same as in week 28.
At rank 1 in HSM (U), Aaj Tak saw growth of 0.6 per cent in week 29 of 2019 to 69.196 million weekly impressions as compared to 68.808 million weekly impressions in the previous week. News18 India was ranked second in week 29 of 2019 with a 12.9 per cent growth in viewership to 58.266 million weekly impressions as compared to 57.223 million weekly impressions in the previous week.
At third rank, India TV witnessed a growth of 1.6 per cent to 53.934 million weekly impressions in week 29 of 2019 as compared to 53.065 million weekly impressions in week 28. Ranked four, ABP News saw growth of 0.9 per cent in viewership in week 29 of 2019 to 48.484 million weekly impressions as compared to 48.042 million weekly impressions in week 28. Completing the quintet at fifth rank was Zee News which saw growth of 2.8 per cent in week 29 of 2019 to 47.903 million weekly impressions as compared to 46.586 million weekly impressions in week 28.
