CNN-News18 reaffirms its position as country's top English news channel, BARC data shows

CNN-News18 has reaffirmed its position as country’s top English news channel. The latest all-India Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) data shows CNN-News18 dominating all viewer metric, from urban to rural to megacities. CNN-News18, the flagship English TV channel of Network18 Group, broke viewership records, capturing 39.2 percent of the market share (Week 22, NCCS All 2+, all days, all India) in all data cuts that matter to both viewers as well as advertisers — from urban markets to six metros to the core target group of AB Male 22+. [caption id=“attachment_6772271” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image> Image courtesy: YouTube scree-grab[/caption] The channel was way ahead of the competition as Republic TV (27.5 percent) lagged behind by 12 percent and Times Now (18.6 percent) could manage less than half of CNN-News18’s market share. In fact, Times Now and India Today put together had a combined market share that did not match CNN-News18’s 39.2 percent share. The channel has seen viewership spikes all through the election season, from Phase 2 to Phase 7 and on counting day. On 23 May, CNN-News18 had a leadership position in both morning counting hours as well as the evening prime time. CNN-News18 and News18.com lined up special programming initiatives to keep viewers apprised of the latest trends and major developments through the elections.

Network18 was the only newsgroup in the country to have covered all counting centre in the country, making its election coverage the fastest and most reliable. An Election Hub was set up in Hyderabad wherein live inputs from every counting centre were processed real time. CNN-News18 deployed the ‘Magic Wall’ — an analytical tool that uses artificial intelligence for election programming and result presentation. Powered by constituency-level research by an award-winning team of reporters and editors, this tool produced accurate data, helping in comparative analysis of trends vis-à-vis previous election results, winning and losing candidates, their margins, giant-killers and percentages. CNN-News18 extensively utilised augmented and virtual reality technology to provide appealing and enhanced coverage.