On September 24, Zee News achieved a programming coup of sorts. Its reporters and camera team, parked in Srinagar for the Assembly elections, covered Live a military operations to flush out terrorists from a house in Gogjibagh locality. This footage was exclusive to Zee News since other channels believed that on the given day Jammu, instead of Srinagar, was a more important area for the election coverage.

The live 4 hour telecast has registered as unprecedented viewership of over 7% TVRs in Delhi. Later, the same day, terrorist attack on Akshardham Temple in Gandhinagar, Gujarat also presented gory but riveting pictures.

Lets begin by looking viewership at the Gogjibagh incident in Kashmir.

The telecast of the incident began around 6:30 AM on Zee News and viewers began watching the news channels around 7 AM, perhaps out of habit. According to minute-by-minute TAM data, at 7:01 AM more popular news channel Aaj Tak recorded a 0.51% TVR while Zee News (inspite of Live telecast) recorded mere 0%. But it took remote savvy viewers only a few minutes, before they discovered the Live telecast on Zee News. From then all, the viewership kept on building to peak around 9 AM recording astounding 7% TVRs. Refer chart 1 below.

As if the morning events were not enough, terrorist stormed Akshardham temple in Gandhinagar. Over the next 12 hours, viewers watched a complex operation, involving commandos, and umpteen politicians and defense analysts chatting in studios. All channels gained viewership. Refer chart 2 below.

TG: 25-44 Yrs/ M/F/ Sec ABC
Time band: 19:00 - 23:00 hrs
Market: Delhi

Underlining the trend, the period (Week 39) saw an over all increase in viewership for news channels.

TG: 25-44 Yrs/ M/F/ Sec ABC
Time band: 19:00 - 23:00 hrs
Combined markets: Delhi/Mumbai/Kolkatta/Kanpur/Ahmedabad/ Ludhiana/UP Rest/Mah Rest