News channels are non-sticky, says study

Soma Das
Posted: Thursday, Dec 04, 2008 at 2337 hrs IST
Updated: Thursday, Dec 04, 2008 at 2337 hrs IST

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New Delhi, Dec 3: Even as news channels proliferate indiscriminately, unlike newspapers and general entertainment channels (GECs), they have failed to prove themselves as habit forming for the lack of differentiators. News channel viewership patterns emerge as highly fragmented and people show no distinct preferences for specific channels while watching political coverage, entertainment news, sports news, international news, gossip-related news among other categories, which indicate news channels haven’t developed any special expertise in specific sectors, points out a perception research study by The Smart Cube, an international business and investment research firm.

The trend of fragmented viewership was also clearly evident in the days following the Mumbai terror attacks, one of the rare occasions when news channels convincingly stole away the eyeballs from GECs. The trend is well substantiated by audience research data of a leading rating agency aMap, if the viewership distribution among top five Hindi news channels is analysed. Among Hindi channels, Aaj tak that garnered maximum TRPs on November 27 as well as November 28 had a viewership share of 29.8% and 28.8% respectively followed by Star News and India TV with the former accounting for 21% and 20% of viewership on the first day and second day in question while the latter accounting for 21% and 25% of viewership on two consecutive days.

Among the top five English news channels that were viewed maximum, while Times Now captured 34% and 37% of eyeballs respectively on the two days in question, the channels occupying second and third highest viewership - NDTV 24/7 (23.6% and 25.6%) and CNN IBN (21% and 19%) were not far behind. Had one taken into consideration all the news channels on air, the share of viewership could have emerged even more fragmented.

“Most news channels end up looking like clones of each others and respondents find it difficult to distinguish one from the other on the basis of special and unique traits of channels. The segregation if at all happens at a very broad level in the mind where English news channels are differentiated from the Hindi news channels. While English news channels that club international news channels like BBC World and national news channels like NDTV 24/7 are perceived to be superior in coverage and presentation which don’t unnecessarily spice up issues, most Hindi channels are huddled up in a category with a similar perception that although coverage of issues and presentation in the channels are taken care of,...

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