News18 India leads the show yet again

News18 India has done it again. With a 14.3% market share, the channel is again in the number one position in the HSM market in the Week 34-Week 37 period. The market share has also shown growth between Week 33 and Week 37. Between Week 33 and 36, News18 India had a market share of 14.1%.

Competition numbers are still way behind that of News18 India. TV9 Bharatvarsh, Aaj Tak, India TV and Republic Bharat clocked a market share of 11.7%, 11.4%, 11.1% and 10.5% respectively in Week 34-37. In fact, Aaj Tak and Republic Bharat also showed a drop in market share between Week 33-Week 37.

In the 1800-2400hrs, TG 15+ HSM (Week 37, All days) market, News18 had a 14.8% market share. The others in the top five in order of rankings were TV Bharatvarsh, Republic Bharat, India TV and Aaj Tak. The channels had market shares of 12.1%, 11.7%, 11.7% and 11.5% respectively.

In terms of cumulative reach too, News18 India topped the charts. In the HSM- Urban + Rural, the channel’s reach touched 88447000, way above the second ranking channel TV9 Bharatvarsh that stood at 67914000.Aaj Tak, India TV and Republic Bharat were the other channels in the top five list.

The return of ratings has been a big relief for the industry, experts said.

“It always helps to have the measurement mechanism for decision making. Ratings form the basis on which decisions on channel selection and spends are made,” said Amol Dighe, CEO, Investments and Business Development, Madison Media, in a separate interview with Storyboard18 as part of our Media Mavens series.

Dighe says they saw a change in the pecking order of news channels with the return of the ratings in the genre. “ Some channels dropped in ratings while some channels saw an increase in their ratings. We are still seeing a fluctuation. As buyers, this needs to be keenly watched and deals will be dynamic till this settles down,” he adds.