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If you thought Aaj Tak was India's No 1 Hindi news channel, think again. Zee News is now claiming the top slot based on the latest viewership data released by TAM Media, the monitoring agency for the TV industry.
In week 39 (September 19-25), Zee News claims to be the No 1 in terms of total time spent on the channel as well as viewership share during prime time (between 7 pm and midnight).
During the week, the channel claims that the four-plus age group viewers in the Hindi-speaking markets spent nearly 33 minutes watching Zee News compared to 25 minutes on Aaj Tak.
Both Star News and NDTV India were at the No 3 slot with 23 minutes each. In the same viewer segment, Zee News also claims to have grabbed the biggest share during prime time. At 23.7 per cent, it claims to be marginally ahead of Aaj Tak at 23.1 per cent.
While Zee News is now flaunting the TAM numbers in newspaper ads, Aaj Tak is highlighting a Cybermedia research study to show that it is the "sarvashrestha" (best) channel.
"We should avoid extrapolating blips into far reaching trends," says Rajesh Sheshadri, marketing head, TV Today, referring to Zee News' week 39 data. He believes that the channel share increase was "clearly a blip in Zee News' life cycle as during the week it converted a news story into reality TV". To be sure, for Zee News it was a happening week at the channel as it got an exclusive programme ("Kiski Gudiya").
"You can't recreate 'Gudiya' again and again. It is critical to deliver consistency," says Sheshadri. He exhibits Aaj Tak's consistency by crunching TAM data and squeezing out the average time spent on all news channels in the 38 weeks of 2004.
Aaj Tak is the clear No 1, ahead of all others with 35 minutes viewing time. Zee News' average is said to be 23 minutes in the four-plus age group.
In the same age group, Aaj Tak's channel share in the all-India market is 29 per cent compared to Zee News' 14 per cent. In the Hindi-speaking market, the same figure is 30 per cent for Aaj Tak and 14 per cent for Zee News.
Senior officials at Zee News, however, say that it is not a blip. "Even in the week before the 'Gudia' episode, the channel had more stickiness than Aaj Tak," says the Zee News executive.
He brandishes the channel's average time spent per viewer between August 25 and September 25, which shows that viewers spent 75 minutes on Zee News compared to 71 minutes on Aaj Tak and 61 minutes on NDTV India.
Media industry experts feel that Aaj Tak's new look, designed by the London-based Jump and Guso from Norway, did not go down well with the viewers.
In week 38, Aaj Tak unveiled its new look marked by an abundance of red colour as well as a screen without tickers. Experts say that removing the ticker was Aaj Tak's biggest blunder.
"People tune in and often hold on to read the tickers, which give them the gist of the news at any time of the day. Tickers drive eyeballs and push stickiness," says a former Zee TV executive.
However, Aaj Tak executives say that TRPs are a function of many factors. "It would be a fallacy to attribute a rise or fall in ratings single-handedly to the change in look. The new look has been done with a desire to add value and on this conclusions should only be drawn in due course," says Sheshadri. Insiders, however, say that Aaj Tak is bringing the tickers back and toning down its red colour.
Meanwhile, Zee News is also claiming that 15 of its programmes now feature among the Top 50 on all the Hindi news channels. "Our growth is not because of one story. Other programmes like 'Jawabdehi', 'Top 10 Plus' and 'Frame 3' are doing well," says the Zee executive.
Aaj Tak has been losing the top slots in programming too. However, its executives say that as recently as week 37, its crime show "Jurm" was the leading show among Hindi news channels.
Sheshadri claims that the channel has a number of programming initiatives in the pipeline. "We're committed to capturing the drama of change -- anytime and anywhere and to provide this to our viewers in the truest tradition of our "sabse tez" philosophy. The next few weeks will tell us who is really sabse tez.