A study of recent TV viewership data looks at the issue of what's a prime time on the Hindi news channels. The morning viewership is as high as in night. Take this. Aaj Tak had 0.35 average TVR in morning against 0.33 average TVR in night in weekdays in Delhi in weeks 22-25 as per TAM. Star News also had a high average TVR of 0.18 in morning against 0.15 average TVR in night. UP also exhibits similar trend. But Mumbai is an exception where viewers prefer Hindi news programming in night. Interestingly unlike other channels, NDTV India is quite popular in the night compared to low TVRs during the daytime. Hindi heartland UP is generating higher viewership than Delhi and Mumbai.

The markets analyzed are Mumbai, Delhi and UP (1 Million plus cities). The target group profile is male, 15-54 year age group from Sec A & B in C&S category. The period considered is 25 May - 21 June including weeks 22(25-31 May), 23(1-7 June), 24(8-14 June) and 25(15-21 June).

News is an all day habit
Contrary to popular perception, Hindi news channel viewers are hooked to their TV sets during day time also especially in mornings where we see viewerships higher than the night at times.

Compare this. In Delhi, Aaj Tak had a average TVR of 0.35 in mornings against a average TVR of 0.33 in the night in weeks 22-25. Zee News also experiences good viewership in mornings. The channel had an average TVR of 0.26 in morning against an average TVR of 0.32 in night. Like Aaj Tak, Star News also had more viewership in morning with an average TVR of 0.18 against 0.15 in the night. The same trend is reflected in the weekends also. Zee News which had an average TVR of 0.29 in night experienced more viewership in morning with an average TVR of 0.35. Aaj Tak had an average TVR of 0.42 in morning with a slightly higher average TVR of 0.43 in night.

UP also shows a similar trend. The morning viewership is very high but not more than night viewership in weekdays. The market leader, Aaj Tak, had an average TVR of 0.55 against an average TVR of 0.74 in night in weekdays. Star News had an average TVR of 0.32 in morning against an average TVR of 0.55 in night. But in weekends the night viewership is lower than the morning viewership. Aaj Tak, had an average TVR of 0.73 in morning whereas it was just 0.53 in the night. Same is the case with Star News which had an average TVR of 0.25 in morning against an average TVR of 0.17 in night. Sahara Samay had an average TVR of 0.12 in morning against 0.07 in the night.

But Mumbai is quite a different market compared to Delhi and UP. The morning and afternoon news consumption in Mumbai is quite low. The market leader, Aaj Tak had an average TVR of 0.46 in night but it manages just 0.19 in the mornings. So is the case with Star News which had an average TVR of 0.14 in morning against 0.24 in the night. Perhaps, the reason behind this is that the people in Mumbai have to travel long distances to reach to their work place and so have to leave from their home early in the morning compared to the other two markets. In weekends, however, the morning viewership fares better than weekdays. Aaj Tak which had a morning average TVR of just 0.19 in weekdays experiences a much higher morning average TVR of 0.33 in weekends.

UP scores higher TVRs
There are more viewers watching Hindi news channels in UP than Delhi or Mumbai. Let's take Aaj Tak for example. In weekdays, the channel had an average TVR of 0.55 in morning in UP and the average TVR for Delhi was 0.35 and for Mumbai 0.19. If we take the night slot also, UP scores considerably over other markets in viewership. Aaj Tak had average TVR of 0.74 in UP, 0.33 in Delhi and 0.46 in Mumbai. In fact, the morning TVRs of UP are comparable to the TVRs of Delhi and Mumbai in the night slot. The viewership is also high during afternoon and evening as well in UP.

Substantiating further, in weeks 17-24, Mumbai's Hindi news channel average viewership share was just 5.44% whereas Delhi had 7.78% and UP had a high share of 8.75% in the same period. (For more details on Hindi news channel shares see our story Zee News overtakes Aaj Tak in Delhi)

Weekdays Vs Weekends
Does it pay to advertise in weekends than weekdays? These channels experience a fairly high viewership in weekends than weekdays across markets. In Mumbai, the Hindi news programming attracts 40% more viewers in morning and over 10% in night in weekends against weekdays. Delhi also reflects slight up in weekend viewership. UP too experiences similar growth in weekends except in the night slot. In the night from 8-12, UP's average total TVR of all 5 channels goes down to just 1 only whereas in weekdays it was 1.61.

Delhi
In Delhi, the viewership is highly fragmented. During weekdays, Aaj Tak is preferred more in morning but Zee News is more liked during afternoon and evening. And in night, both Aaj Tak and Zee News have an equal TVRs. Again like in Mumbai, NDTV India picks up in the night scoring more TVRs than even Star News. However, weekends are a different story altogether. Aaj Tak continues to dominate the show through out the day in all time bands. Zee follows it closely. The mornings continue to attract high viewership which is as good as the night viewership. However, the viewership takes a dip in the afternoon. NDTV Hindi comes up with a promising TVR in the evening and night slots which is comparable to Zee News which follows the leader Aaj Tak.

Mumbai
Aaj Tak dominates as the most preferred Hindi news channel across all time periods in both weekdays and weekends. The channel had an average TVR of 0.46 in weekdays and 0.65 in weekends in the night slot. Interestingly, in the morning, Zee News and Star News follows Aaj Tak quite closely but they lose viewership during the day. Whereas Aaj Tak maintains its viewership during the day and in the night its viewership goes very high compared to other channels which also picks up in this time band. NDTV India which gets a very low viewership during the day picks up considerably and reaches TVRs almost at the same level as Zee News and Star News.

Akshay Bhatnagar

Other Related analysis