The FINANCIAL — The results of the battle between television news channels for viewers during elections are out, and TIMES NOW has once again emerged as the clear leader in the English news space.
According to viewership data released by Audience Measurement and Analytics Ltd, TIMES NOW was clearly ahead on May 16, counting day, with 8.05 Grps, followed by NDTV 24×7 with 5.84 Grps and CNN-IBN on third position with 3.77 Grps. (All India 10 lac+, c&s, m25+ sec ab)
"The viewership lead of TIMES NOW was even sharper in the critical 8am to 2pm segment, when the results were streaming in. In this period, TIMES NOW grps stood at 3.95, followed by NDTV 24×7 at 2.11 and CNN-IBN in third position with 1.47 grps," TIMES NOW announces.
The consolidation of viewership for TIMES NOW was visible during the period April to May, when news channels ramped up their political coverage. TIMES NOW has consistently been the number one channel for 26 weeks since the Mumbai terror attack coverage, and channels lead has grown during the pre-poll period.
For the elections, TIMES NOW had the widest panel of 15 experts ranging from political analysts to senior journalists. The channel launched two extremely successful primetime shows in this period, called “The Political Juice” and “The Inside Track”, which kept the focus on the breaking stories about political realignments.
“Our focus was more on news, than numbers”, says Arnab Goswami, Editor in Chief of TIMES NOW, “And that’s the reason why we took a considered decision not to do an exit poll, and focus on breaking stories, which is our forte”
In all, TIMES NOW also spent more time on dedicated political coverage. The channel did a 100 hour live results countdown and in all 300 dedicated hours of election programming, which is probably also one of the principal reasons for the spike on counting day. On that day, the channel reported from 40 live locations with a 200 member special election crew manning the coverage.
