Pervev Musharraf’s trip to India, Attacks on America, bombing of Afganistan……events in the past 6 months which have benefited above else one single community in India:

The Indian news channels.
In our series of continuing analysis of the effect of these and other major political developments on the media habits of the populace we look at the effect of the recent attack on the Indian parliament on changes in television viewer ship patterns.

After the war clouds over Afghanistan had melted away the news channels were finding it hard to retain their audience as viewers started shifting to entertainment channels en masse. But the terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament last week has helped the channels woo the audience back. In this exclusive analysis we look at how the recent happenings on the political front have helped the news channels attract audience.

The attacks on America and the subsequent war in Afghanistan saw news channels becoming the flavour of the day as audience flocked to watch the worn torn country being pounded by American bombers. Just before the attacks on America all the 3 Indian news channels had less than a % of audience share each. Week 36 (2 Sep – 08 Sep) just before the attacks saw the 3 channels Aaj Tak, Zee News and Star news managing a channel share of 0.90 %, 0.42 % and 0.24 % respectively. But as the terrorists stuck America, over the next few weeks the viewer ship shares jumped over 300% for each of these channels. Figures in the table below reveal the interesting trend over the last 3 months.

After the war subsided, news channels struggled hard to retain audience as they shifted to other entertainment channels. But the attack on 13^th December once again has come as a boost for them. The last 2 weeks show the jump in channels shares since the attack on the Indian parliament took place. During week 49 Aaj Tak managed average channel shares of 1.67 %. This figure jumped over 100 % to go up to 3.7% in week 50. Zee news and Star plus too saw a similar surge in channel shares as both these channels saw shares go up by almost 150% each.

The cumulative TVRs managed by these channels tell a similar story.

Since the attacks happened during the day lets look at 3 time bands separately, 10 am to 2 pm, 2 pm to 6 pm and 6 pm to 10 pm. In all the 3 channels the afternoon time band was the most lucrative since the attacks happened around noon.

Aaj Tak and Star News both saw a massive rise of almost 800% in viewer ship during the afternoon time band. Star news saw TVRs jump from 0.4% to 3.84% a whopping rise of 860%. Aaj Tak numbers tell a similar tale as ratings went up by 880% during the same time band. Zee news though behind these two managed a healthy 550% rise in the afternoon time band as ratings went up from an average of 0.48% during week 49 to 3.12 % on 13^th December.

Aaj Tak saw the maximum rise in ratings in the morning time band from a cum of 0.8% TVR to 2.56 % in week 50. Star News was the biggest gainer in the evening time band with the Cum TVR rising 180% from 0.5% to 1.12%.

Week 50 as a whole has been good for the news channels overall as tensions between India and Pakistan flare up. The week on an average has delivered more than a 100% rise in TVRs for Aaj Tak and Star as compared with Week 49. Aaj Tak has been the biggest gainer in the morning slot and Star news has gained in the evening time band.

Though it remains to be seen where the war of words between India and Pakistan is leading us but news channels for sure are not complaining !!

• Attacks on America and its fall out on the viewership of news channels
• Pervez Musharaff’s trip to India
• Dennis Lindsey controversy during the India South Africa test series