BENGALURU: Abrogation of Article 370 and the presentation and passage of The Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 in the parliament on 5 August and 6 August 2019 respectively was a big booster for news across all media. Reactions from within and without the country, the incessant debates and arguments for and against the act attracted eyeballs to news television channels. The English news genre on television was also a big beneficiary in terms of increase in viewership during the week (Week 32: Saturday, 3 August 2019 to Friday, 9 August 2019, week or period under consideration). Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly data for week 32 of top 5 English news channels showed that the combined viewership of the top channels increased by 1.074 million impressions or went up by 59.3 percent as compared to week 31 of 2019.
The combined weekly impressions of the top 5 English news channels were 2.885 million and 1.811 million during weeks 32 and 31 respectively. The top 5 English channels in week 32 of 2019 were the same as in week 31 with a shuffling in ranks four and five. In terms of absolute weekly impressions, the Arnab Goswami-led Republic TV was the biggest gainer in viewership, while pubcaster Doordarshan’s English news channels DD India gained the least among the top 5 English news channels in week 32 as compared to week 31. The India Today Group’s India Today Television gained the most in terms of percentage at 87.6 percent while DD India had the lowest gains of 32 percent in terms of growth of weekly viewership. India Today Television climbed up one rank to fourth place replacing Network18’s CNN News18 which descended to rank 5. Please refer to the figure below:
Let us see how the top 5 English news channels performed.
As mentioned above, channels ranked one (Republic TV), two (Times Now) and three (DD India) in week 32 of 2019 had the same ranks in the previous week. Please refer to the figure below for ranks, with rank 1 being the most watched.
Republic TV was ranked one in week 32 of 2019 with 0.871 million weekly impressions, which was 51.7 percent or 0.297 million impression more as compared to 0.569 million weekly impressions in week 31.
With 0.630 million weekly impressions in week 32 of 2019, Times Now retained its previous week’s second rank. Times Now viewership in week 32 of 2019 was 53.3 percent or 0.219 million impressions more than the 0.425 million weekly impressions in week 31.
DD India retained its third rank in week 32 of 2019 with 0.528 million weekly impression which was 0.128 million impressions or 32 percent more than the 0.337 million weekly impressions in week 31.
As mentioned above, India Today Television climbed up a place to fourth rank in week 32 of 2019 with 0.439 million weekly impressions which was 0.211 million impressions or 87.6 percent more than the 0.234 million weekly impressions in week 31.
Completing the quintet at rank 5 was CNN News18 with 0.417 million weekly impressions in week 32 of 2019 which was 0.134 million impressions or 69.5 percent more than the 0.246 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Please refer to the figure below:
