BENGALURU: Week 14 of 2019 is only the second week that Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) has started publishing viewership data in the public domain after the new TRAI tariff regime was established. Week 14 of 2019 is the week starting Saturday, 30 March 2019 and ending Friday, 5 April 2019. Before week 13 of 2019, BARC had published data for week 1 to 5 of 2019 in calendar year 2019. Unlike many other genres such as Hindi GEC that have been affected by the new tariff regime followed by their exiting from Prasar Bharati’s DD FreeDish, the four South Indian news language channels have been mostly unaffected in terms of presence in BARC’s weekly lists of top five news channels of the respective language. It must be noted that there are more than five news channels in each of the four South Indian language/markets.
Kannada news
The most unaffected was the Kannada news genre for which public data in terms of presence in BARC’s weekly list of top five Kannada news channels in the Karnataka market for the seven weeks of 2019 (weeks 1 to 5 and weeks 13 and 14, period or weeks under consideration) is available. Almost like clockwork, TV9 Kannada was ranked first followed by Public TV at second rank, Suvarna News 24x7 at third rank, News18 Kannada at fourth rank and Dighvijay 24x7 at fifth rank during all the weeks under consideration.
TV9 scored 86.250 million weekly impressions; Public TV scored 60.560 million weekly impressions; Suvarna News 24x7 41.662 million weekly impressions; News18 Kannada 27.402 million weekly impressions and Dighvijay 24x7 News scored 18.962 million weekly impressions during week 14 of 2019.
Malayalam news
In the case of Malayalam news, four channels were present in BARC’s weekly lists of top five Malayalam news channels in the Kerala market, while three were present for at least one week each. Asianet News was consistently ranked one for the seven-week period under consideration. Two channels Manorama News (rank 2 for 5 weeks and rank 3 for 2 weeks) and Matrubhumi News (rank 3 for 5 weeks and rank 2 for 2 weeks) swapped ranks two and three with each other during the weeks under consideration. Janam TV was ranked four for all the seven weeks. News18 Kerala was ranked five for four of the seven weeks, while Media One TV was present in BARC’s lists for 2 weeks and Twenty Four for one week.
In week 14 of 2019, Asianet News led the top five Malayalam News channels list with 41.683 million weekly impressions; Manorama News was ranked second with 24.436 million weekly impressions; Mathrubhumi News was ranked third with 19.946 million weekly impressions; Janam TV was ranked fourth with 11.535 million weekly impressions while Media One was ranked fifth with 7.670 million weekly impressions.
Tamil news
Six channels were present in BARC’s weekly lists of top five Tamil news channels in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry markets. Four of them in ranks one to four were present during all the weeks of the period under consideration – they were: Polimer News which was ranked one during all the seven weeks; Puthiya Thalaimurai which was ranked two for six of the seven weeks and was ranked three for one week; Thanti TV which was ranked two for one week; was ranked three for five of the seven-week and was ranked four for one week and Sun News which was ranked four for six out of seven weeks and ranked three for one week. The other two channels were News18 Tamil Nadu which was ranked five for weeks 1 to 5 of 2019 and News 7 Tamil which was ranked five for weeks 13 and 14 of 2019.
In week 14 of 2019, Polimer news led the Tamil news genre with 53.007 million weekly impressions; Thanti TV was ranked second with 28.241 million weekly impressions closely followed by Puthiya Thalaimurai at third rank with 28.116 million weekly impressions; at rank four was Sun News with 26.209 million weekly impressions while News 7 Tamil completed the quintet with 21.048 million weekly impressions.
Telugu news
Five channels were present in BARC’s weekly lists of top five Telugu news channels during all the seven weeks under consideration. TV9 Telugu was present in the lists at rank one during all the seven weeks. NTV Telugu was ranked second for five of the seven weeks and was ranked fourth and fifth for one week each; TV5 News was ranked two for one week, was ranked three for four of the seven weeks, and was ranked five for two weeks; V6 News was ranked four for six of the seven weeks and was ranked three for one week, while Sakshi TV was ranked five for four of the seven weeks was ranked two for one week and was ranked three for two weeks (weeks 13 and 14 of 2019). For the two weeks post the implementation of the new tariff order regime, the pecking order in the Telugu news genre seems to have changed a little, but only time will tell if the change is permanent. Sakshi TV has gained viewership in the two weeks of the recommencement of BARC data post the new tariff regime.
In week 14 of 2019, TV9 Telugu was ranked one with 49.556 million weekly impressions; NTV Telugu was ranked second with 39.237 million weekly impressions; Sakshi TV was ranked third 37.589 million weekly impressions; V6 News was ranked fourth with 36.681 million weekly impressions and TV5 News was ranked fifth with 31.657 million weekly impressions.
