Republic TV outperforms Times now in debut week
Arnab Goswami's news channel Republic TV out performed Times Now with 2.11 million impressions in its first week debut, 84.4% higher than that of Times Now. Republic TV also claimed it was the first news channel in India to become number one in its debut week itself. The data was released by the Broadcast Audience Research Council India, today.
What are impressions?
Impressions are a means of measuring viewership. It is also known as television viewership in thousands. It measures in the number of users in thousands who view an event across an average time-frame. Republic TV garnered 2117 (thousands) impressions equalling 2.117 million viewers.
Some details of the data
According to the data, Times Now had topped the charts throughout 2017 until Republic TV's debut. Times Now garnered 1.14 million impressions between 6-12 May, followed by NDTV 24x7 which recorded 0.35 million impressions. These were followed by India Today and CNN News18. The data showed that Times Now had more viewership than all Indian English news channels put together.
Is this good news for advertisers?
Advertisers were quick to say that Republic TV resonated well with newer audiences and was a step forward in Indian broadcast. However, experts stated that the data only reflected one week's ratings and that advertisers would need to identify a trend in order to make good investments. Also, the data only reflected results from cities with a population over 10 lakh.
Controversies continue
Meanwhile, Republic TV continued to be bogged by controversy, after the News Broadcasters Association asked TRAI to take action against alleged unethical distribution practices by Republic TV. NBA alleged that Republic TV registered itself under multiple genres to get more visibility with cable network providers. They had also asked BARC to withhold ratings until Republic TV ended the multiple registrations.
Arnab Goswami thanks India
Arnab Goswami stated that the ratings had reaffirmed his "faith that people watch what they find credible. I am deeply grateful to the people of this country for making Republic TV, the number one news channel in India."
