The general elections in India might have thrown up a clear winner, but the general elections on TV continue to throw up a fractured mandate. Nothing illustrates this better than the claims and counter-claims of the TV stations on who captured more eyeballs on counting day, May 16.
“Times Now poll coverge tops viewership ratings,” reads the headline of a news story in The Times of India which owns the channel.
“Times Now wins the election,” screams an advertisement in the same paper.
“According to viewership data compiled by Audience Measurement and Analytics Ltd, Times Now was ahead on counting day, May 16, with 8.05 GRPs, followed by NDTV 24×7 with 5.84 GRPs and CNN-IBN with 3.77 GRPs,” reads The Times story.
(GRPs is short for gross rating points, the currency used by advertisers to measure the popularity or reach of a TV channel. The higher it is, the larger its viewership is supposed to be.)
However, according to a report in Business Standard, among the English news channels, NDTV 24×7 had the highest GRP of 3.7 on counting day May 16, followed by Times Now (3.6) and CNN-IBN (2.7). In other words, Times Now was second, not first in the ratings.
Times Now claims it has been number one for 26 weeks since its coverage of the November 26 terror attack on Bombay and that the channel’s lead grew in the pre-poll period. But another rival, CNN-IBN, has claimed it was No.1 on at least three of the five polling days.
And as of this morning, CNN-IBN has begun touting itself as the “Clear No.1” on polling day, according to TAM ratings.
As if to underline the gap between English media and language media, BS says Aaj Tak clocked GRPs of 20.2, followed by Star News 17.2 and India TV 13.1. English news channels usually get an average GRP of around 1 or less on an average day.
“Aaj Tak was No. 1 on polling day,” reads the headline of a story in the tabloid Mail Today, both of which are owned by the India Today group. “Aaj Tak was the most searched news source on Google India on May 16… In the 100 key words for the day, variants of Aaj Tak featured four times.”
If journalism, old or new, is about the truth, Indian television stations seem to be stumbling at the first post.
Cross-posted on sans serif
I, for one, stuck to NDTV mostly. The coverage by Times or CNN-IBN was not as informative, mature or engrossing. IAC, I am biased. I hate the shrill voice of Rajdeep and Arnab “I won’t let anyone else speak, because this is my show” Goswami. Headlines today is so sensation mongering, it can even create its own news!!
I have always found Pranab roy a lot more mature and having more understanding of what he is doing in Poll coverage. Add to that the friendly demeanor of all the hosts of NDTV, as versus, “ok lets fight with these politicians” attitude of others.
Hi,
These are all Amap numbers and for different catagories. Amap gives viewership data every day but which has no relevence in the market. This is like fake currency. These numbers are like a joke in the entertainment industry.
TAM ratings are actual currency for the channel across the country and which will be available only on wednesday, every week.
And confusion over the actual number is understandable because journalists misinterpreted the numbers. Times Now claims they are number one in Cable and Satellite Male 25 plus ABC, this could be the target TG for this kind of stuff. But business standerd reports Cable Satellite All 15 plus. That is why Times Now no.2 there. Why worry about this? Because, these are afterall Amap numbers. Wait till tomorrow, you will get TAM ratings for the same. Which will be very different from the Amap numbers, I am very sure.
TKS Bhat
:lol:
Bah ….
The last sentence “If journalism, old or new, is about the truth, Indian television stations seem to be stumbling at the first post” is absolutely true… Journalism is loosing its value day by day…. cooking up news has become the norm of the day…
The channels yesterday made my stomach churn with their constant footage of the LTTE chief’s body. Good that the LTTE has been vanquished but the coverage bordered on the macabre.They probably see it as a an extension of the non-stop election coverage!
I feel the best graphics were in CNN – IBN. It was easy to understand. The structure of presentataion was also good in CNN-IBN. Ofcourrse the best part of CNN – IBN was not Rajdeep Sardesai but P Sainath with his frank comments with so much of confidence. Yogendar Yadv was good too.
NDTV had Shekar Gupta which made us to tune into it.
Times Now had Mahesh Rangarajan which made us to tune.
Of the anchors, no doubt it has to be Pranab Roy. Unfortunately it had the worst graphics.
for some weird reason, rajdeep sardesai and sagarika ghosh shout a lot. i swear, i closed the browser, muted my speakers and i could still hear their voices on the other side of jambu dweepa.
i dunno if nice folks at ibnlive have discovered the speaker and amplifier yet. you speak in it normally and it carrie you voice to great distances. houdri it works!! ella biLiyara maaye!!
NDTV is all bling-bling now, hell with readability.
At least during poll, it was OK, it had golden letters on Black. Now it is reverse.
Rajdeep and Sagarika are certainly not exceptions….I had the EXACT same feeling listening to Arnab Goswami….no freaking clue why he shouts!!! It was annoying after some time…..by the end of the counting day, he had almost lost his voice, actually.
Prannoy Roy, Vikram Chandra and Sreenivasan Jain are so easy on ears. So, bottom,lline: Watch NDTV….just mute it when Barkha Dutt speaks :)
I agree with tarlesubba and December Stud, Rajdeep, Sagarika and Arnab don’t need a mike at all (or do they’ve special amplifiers..), these guys need to understand that need not be so desperate to prove their point…. compared to these 3.. Prannoy and Srinivasan Jain are far better (atleast they don’t shout)….
These shameless newspapers were rejoicing when their website got more than 1 million hits during 26/11 terrorist attack.