The latest TAM data shows mixed trends in the news channel genre viewership with the entry of new players. Contrary to expectations the increase in number of news channels has not resulted in a major increase in their viewership yet, except in Hindi heartland - UP. Star News and Sahara Samay National have gained significant viewership with both Aaj Tak and Zee News fighting hard to retain their stranglehold. In fact, Star News's viewership has gone up by almost 700% in UP and more then 300% in Delhi in April 13-19 viz a viz average viewership in February.

These are the findings of the exchange4media analysis of the TAM data for the period Feb 2 - Apr 19, 2003. We have taken this time period which represents three different phases for the news channels. The first one starts from February beginning till March end. The next one covers from March end till the end of first week of April. This phase signifies the entry of Star News in its Hindi avatar and Sahara Samay National. The third phase is post April 6 when Headlines Today, NDTV 24x7 and NDTV India were launched. Since this is an analysis of 3 week viewership trends for Star News and Sahara Samay National; slightly less then 2 weeks for Headlines Today and; just 6 days for NDTV 24x7 and NDTV India, these are really early trends only. And we expect the viewership market to stabilize over the next 4 weeks or so only.

The markets analyzed are Mumbai, Delhi and UP (the million plus population cities only including Agra, Allahabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Meerut and Varanasi). The target group profile is male, 15-54 year age group from Sec A & B in C&S category.

By going through the data starting from February 2 to April 19, one can clearly see that the news channel viewership went up quite significantly during the period March 15 - April 15 in all the three markets which are covered by exchange4media. Perhaps, it might be the US-Iraq conflict hogging the headlines besides the launch of 5 new news channels that might have drawn the viewer's interest greatly. Compare this. In UP, the average combined viewership of all news channels stood at 7.28% in February. But it zoomed to 17.72% in April 6-12. And when people started losing interest in it, as Saddam's regime was toppled by Americans, the share went down to 13.31% in the next week itself. (Refer chart 1) Same was the case with Delhi and Mumbai cities.

Chart1

Overall, the news channels viewership has gone up in all the three markets if we compare the April 13-19 data with February. In UP, which has seen the highest jump in news channel consumption, the market has expanded from 7.28% in February to 13.31% in April 13-19. Whereas Mumbai, the share has gone up from 5.02% to 6.18% and in Delhi, it grew from 8.15% to 8.89% in the same period.

On comparing the averages for the month of February with the April 13-19 figures, it is evident that the market leader Aaj Tak has lost its share in Delhi but has picked up more viewership in Mumbai and UP. In February, its average viewership was 4.62% but it came down to 3.62% in April 13-19 period in Delhi. (Refer chart 2).

Chart2

News Channels Viewership in %
Delhi	Year 2003
Channels	Feb	Mar	Mar30 - Apr5	Apr6 - 12	Apr13 - 19
Zee News	2.93	3.37	3.17	2.9	2.67
Star News	0.61	0.61	1.27	1.89	1.85
Aaj Tak	4.62	5.8	6.29	4.19	3.62
Sahara Samay National	0	0	0.39	0.49	0.74
NDTV 24x7(English)	0	0	0	0.02	0
NDTV India(Hindi)	0	0	0	0	0
Headlines Today	0	0	0	0.01	0.01
News Genre Total	8.15	9.79	11.13	9.49	8.89
Note: Feb month data is for the period Feb2 - Mar1
March month data is for the period Mar 2 - 29
Target Group - 15-54 yr, Sec A&B, Male in C&S category during 0700-2400 hours

Whereas, Zee News has also gone down in Delhi but just managed to retain its share in Mumbai. (Refer chart 3) The channel had managed an average of 2.93% in February which came down to 2.67% in period April 13-19 in Delhi. In UP also, Zee News is losing marginally though. In the Hindi belt, Zee News seems to be losing ground.

Star News, which has really shaken up the market by moving away from English programming to become a complete Hindi news channel, has emerged as a major gainer in the whole battle for eyeballs. In UP, it has emerged as a strong No.2 to Aaj Tak leaving behind Zee News by a wide margin. With an average of just 0.48% in February, it jumped to 3.3% in April 13-19 in UP. In Delhi also, Star News has grown by more than 300% by eating into the share of Aaj Tak and Zee News. However, in Mumbai, the channel has not been able to make such an impact and has just managed to increase its share marginally.

Chart3

News Channels Viewership in %
Mumbai	Year 2003
Channels	Feb	Mar	Mar30 - Apr5	Apr6 - 12	Apr13 - 19
Zee News	1.13	1.82	2	1.64	1.13
Star News	0.82	1.02	1.63	1.27	0.87
Aaj Tak	3.07	4.36	5.02	5.02	3.43
Sahara Samay National	0	0.07	0.36	0.42	0.62
NDTV 24x7(English)	0	0	0	0	0
NDTV India(Hindi)	0	0	0	0	0.11
Headlines Today	0	0	0	0	0.02
News Genre Total	5.02	7.27	9.01	8.35	6.18
Note: Feb month data is for the period Feb2 - Mar1
March month data is for the period Mar 2 - 29
Target Group - 15-54 yr, Sec A&B, Male in C&S category during 0700-2400 hours

Though the focus was on the above three major players, Sahara Samay National which made its entry on March 28 has managed a decent performance, contrary to what many in the industry estimated. In Delhi and Mumbai, it has managed to create a niche for itself (refer chart 4) with a consistent growth and in UP, it has come up with a strong showing by claiming 3rd position, pushing Zee News to the fourth slot. It has climbed to 2.08% in April 13-19 in a very short time in UP.

Chart4

Winners & Losers
Delhi	Year 2003
Channels	Feb	Mar	Mar30 - Apr5	Apr6 - 12	Apr13 - 19	Change
Aaj Tak	4.62	5.8	6.29	4.19	3.62	-1
Zee News	2.93	3.37	3.17	2.9	2.67	-0.26
Star News	0.61	0.61	1.27	1.89	1.85	+1.24
Sahara Samay National	0	0	0.39	0.49	0.74	+0.74

In UP, the news channels viewership has gone up by more than 90%. Aaj Tak, Star News and Sahara Samay National have all managed to increase their viewership. It's only Zee News which has shown a negative growth in the state.

The other news channels like NDTV India and NDTV 24x7, launched on April 14 does not make much impact in the ratings game as they got barely a week to become part of the research data. Moreover distribution problems in certain pockets might have also affected their performance. But certainly the next few weeks will be crucial for Prannoy and his team as the real impact of the NDTV channels could be measured then.

The other new English news channel, Headlines Today launched on April 7 shows low viewership also. Again, it is too early to make any opinion about them based on the viewership for just 2 weeks only.

It's going to be quite interesting to watch out how the new news channels perform in the next few weeks time especially NDTV 24x7, NDTV India and Headlines Today. Plus, whether Star News and Sahara Samay National manages to maintain their tempo besides how Zee News especially and Aaj Tak fares.

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