BENGALURU: There is rarely any middle ground as far as Republic TV Editor Arnab Goswami is concerned. Either you like him or you hate him. On his ‘debates’, which sometimes include long monologues by Goswami who is supposed moderator of the ‘debates’ either you agree with him or you disagree with him. But then this is what India seems to like – his completely nationalistic brouhaha, his often brutal coercions that often fail to impress the coerced, his interpretations of the statusco, his interruptions – this is what sets him a class apart – no other news anchor on Indian News Television has ever gained the admiration, the hatred, the fame, the popularity and the notoriety that Goswami has. And that is what has won his English Television News channel the eyeballs, the sticky eyeballs that make it the most watched Indian English Television News channel in the country in terms of weekly impressions. Except for a handful of exceptional weeks, Republic TV has retained leadership of the genre, right from the week that it launched about 3 years ago on 6 May 2017 – right in the middle of an ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) season when a majority of Indians are glued to the channels that air the cricketing bonanza.
Earlier, Broadcast Audience Research Council of India limited publishing data for English News channels to NCCS Males 22+ Individual for the Top 5 English News channels in the public domain. Of late the ratings agency has started reporting data for ratings for Top 5 English News channels on a demographic of All India (U+R): NCCS All : 2+ Individuals. In either case, as mentioned above, Republic TV has been the genre leader.
Please refer to the chart below. Only 3 channels have been present in BARC’s weekly list of top 5 English News channels during the first 22 weeks of 2020. In alphabetical order, they are India Today Television, Republic TV and Times Now. Since Week 17 of 2020, Network18’s English News CNN News18 has also been present in BARC’s Weekly lists of Top 5 English News Channels. As a matter fact, during the first 22 weeks of 2020, CNN News18 was absent from BARC’s weekly top 5 English News channels only once – in Week 15 of 2020.
Top 5 English News Channels in Week 22 of 2020
Overall, the combined weekly impressions of BARC’s list of Top English News Channels increased 4.2 percent as compared to the previous week. Only one channel changed in BARC’s weekly list of Top 5 English News channels in Week 22 of 2020 (Saturday, 30 May 2020 to Friday, 5 June 2020, week or period under review) vis-à-vis the previous week. Pubcaster Doordarshan’s DD India exited the list and was replaced by the Radhika and Pronnoy Roy headed group’s NDTV 24x7 at rank 5 which made its sixth entrance into the list during the first 22 weeks of 2020.
The first four channels in the list retained their ranks in Week 22 of 2020 as compared to the previous week. Republic TV at first rank saw its weekly impressions increase to 9.6 percent to 4.034 billion in Week 22 of 2020 from 3.682 billion in Week 21. At second rank, Times now saw 17.9 growth to 3.208 billion weekly impressions in the week under review from 2.722 billion impressions in Week 21 of 2020.
CNN News18 at third rank saw an 8.3 percent decline to 1.955 billion weekly impressions in Week 22 of 2020 from 2.131 billion weekly impressions in the previous week. India Today Television at rank 4 saw an increase of 0.3 percent to 1.582 billion weekly impressions in Week 22 of 2020 from 1.578 billion weekly impressions in the previous week. NDTV 24x7 entered BARC’s weekly list of Top 5 English News Channels in Week 22 of 2020 with 0.839 billion weekly impressions. DD India at rank 5 in Week 21 of 2020 had garnered 1.032 billion weekly impressions.
