THE BIG FIGHT

"Just as water retains no constant shape, so also in warfare there is no constant condition and he who can modify his tactics in relation to his opponent and thereby succeed in winning, may be called a heaven-born captain".

From our borders to battlefield Iraq, the war for supremacy and ideology reigns supreme. The year 2003 will go down as one of the busiest years in the history of news channels where the war for viewership and ratings is hotting up as newer players enter the market and veterans reposition themselves to retain or capture the pie.

Increased competition would mean viewers expecting high quality content, quicker reportage, and high tech news. And the winner would obviously be the channel that presents the news content best. Who will finally emerges as the winner is yet to be known, as it will be a while before the viewership numbers stabilize. Right now as most viewers experiment with the multiple options made available, we at OMS decided to stay with the viewers and get a first hand experience of the movement, if at all of viewer preference.

We conducted a study in Delhi in two phases. In the first phase was - a week after launch (15th April 03') the present state of the market and viewer awareness and trial of the new channels. This was consequently followed up by a study conducted after a period of 3 weeks (7th May 03') which would provide if preference for any new channel(s) had set in. This time round the study was expected to show, advantage that one channel had over the other for the delivery of daily news and analysis of world and domestic affairs. It would also show changes in preference, if any, and whether promotion efforts were paying dividends resulting in the increment of both aided and unaided awareness scores. A sample of 100 respondents was part of the survey for each round. Target Audience definition: All adults, 25+ years, SEC ABC.

The analysis of the research are as follows:

Recall and Awareness of the channels:
The entry of a number of new players has changed the news channel scene both in the English and the Hindi news genre. The poor recall of the new channels (Hindi and English) in the first week, seems to have picked up, but not considerably. Headlines Today, thanks to heavy promotion on the leading news channel, Aaj Tak, gets the highest awareness scores. The others despite their heavy promotional efforts have not captured the share of mind of the viewer.

A comparison of both aided and unaided recall scores over the two phases is shown below:

Sahara Samay is the other channel that has registered significant gains in the recall scores.

Channel Preference:

A comparison of channels being rated as favorite over the two phases had shown interesting results. Clearly, Hindi as a language for news delivery is more popular than English.

Currently the seemingly unbeatable Aaj Tak, though still No. 1 in the second phase, has taken a severe hit and its score on viewer preference has seen a significant dip of nearly 40%. Star News clearly emerged as the favorite No. 2. NDTV 24X7 was the favorite English Channel.

On the whole Aaj Tak seems to be losing its stranglehold on the viewer preference and different channels are making inroads into its popularity.

The gain and loss account for the channels on their popularity is as follows:

What makes them tick:

Among the sample the preference for each channel on the listed attributes as a percentage on a base of 100 is as follows:

RATINGS OF ATTRIBUTES CHANNEL-WISE AS PER VIEWER PREFERENCE

Aaj Tak leads on all the parameters especially on content, anchors and speed of news delivery. Despite the initial onslaught by the new News Channel it has managed to hold on to the top slot for over 3 weeks now.

Star News has emerged as a close second with high scores on content, credibility and depth of analysis. It might be enjoying a rise in popularity because of its high connectivity (advantage STAR bouquet) and also perhaps a more clutter free environment that the channel provides.

However, there seems to be no clear differentiation between it and Zee News on all parameters. Zee News also has seen a rise in popularity but has not managed to create a niche for itself among the clutter of other News Channels. It still has a long way to go and has to work on all attributes if it wants to command viewer loyalty and challenge Aaj Tak and counter the threat now posed by STAR News.

At the end of the day, the consumer would benefit most through better delivery of news and a more varied choice but what does this entail for the advertiser? Just a few relevant pointers:

• Numbers would be more important for Hindi news channels.
• For English news channels' perceptions would play a major role. Thus, image and viewership profile would be decisive in the rates that the English news channel will command.
• Viewership and share of ad pie would see only a minimal rise making the struggle for survival harder. This would ensure that advertisers have to allocate budgets far more judiciously.
• With personnel costs doubling and programming costs going up we foresee that mainly larger players with a number of channels in their bouquet will be able to balance the advertising revenue to expenditure ratio.
• Considering, in the end, that there will be too much clutter in the arena, in the end only a few news channels will be watched. The ones who are unique will have top of mind recall and the channels' closest to the viewer's heart will be one that offers a platform to viewers to voice their issues and concerns.

Has the preference of viewers shifted to newer channels or is this just a temporary shift to try out what these channels are offering. Ultimately the consumer is king and he would pass the final verdict. Who emerges supreme in this numbers game is yet to be seen.…