News Broadcasting
Ten Sports continues running circles around ESS courtesy WWE
MUMBAI: Despite the lack of promotional and marketing campaigns to create viewer awareness about its content, Ten Sports continues to put ESPN Star Sports on the mat courtesy Vince MacMahon’s World Wrestling Entertainment.
TAM data for the week 4-10 May for C&S homes 4+ paints a revealing picture. Ten Sports’ highest rated show is Smackdown. on 6 May. That Mumbaiites in particular are feasting their eyes on the growing conflict between Big Show and Brock Lesnar can be gauged by the fact that the show registered a TVR of 3. Delhi was next with a figure of 1.9. For all India, it had a TVR of 1.30. In fact seven of the top ten shows are wrestling oriented. The other three are informative news based bulletins. After Smackdown , the next four highest rated shows on the channel had all India TVRs of 1.06, 1.01, 0.81 and 0.81 respectively. RAW with the antics of HHH and Kevin Nash features prominently here.
If you consider all India TVRs, not a single show on ESS has reached even 0.50. In the six major metros, none of Star Sports’ top ten shows have managed to reach a TVR of 1. Its top rated show Autosports International has drawn a blank in Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore. In Mumbai, it had a TVR of 0.72. If you thought ESPN would put up a better show courtesy non-India cricket, think again. The test series between Australia and West Indies which saw Steve Waugh’s men triumph 3-1 managed to draw a TVR of over 1 in the major metros just once. That was in Kolkata where it had a TVR of 1.06. It appears that unless the Indian cricket fan is emotionally involved he couldn’t care less.
The same holds true for Ten Sports. Its cricket rating snippet pops in at number 11. You have to reach number 25 before a cricket match finally appears on Ten Sports in the form of the one day match between Sri Lanka and Pakistan. The silver lining is that it managed a TVR of 1.03 in Kolkata.
Star Sports’ top five shows had low all-India TVRs of 0.19. 0.14 and 0.13. They include the much hyped live telecast of Formula One. ESPN fares marginally better with all India TVRs of 0.31, 0.28, 0.27 and 0.25.
The argument that India is a “sports-dud” nation is certainly borne out by the ratings.
News Broadcasting
News18 India to air Sabse Bada Dangal on 4 May counting day
Channel promises fastest results, live trends and analysis across five states.
MUMBAI: Ballots will do the talking and screens will do the shouting. As counting day approaches for high-stakes Assembly elections across West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry, News18 India is gearing up for an all-day broadcast of its flagship election show, Sabse Bada Dangal, on 4 May from 6 am onwards. The Hindi news channel plans to deliver continuous, real-time updates as votes are tallied, combining live counting data with on-ground reporting and studio analysis. With political fortunes set to shift through the day, the coverage will track every swing, surge and surprise as trends turn into results.
The broadcast will feature a mix of senior political leaders, analysts and experts, offering instant reactions and decoding the evolving electoral picture. Expect heated debates, quick takes and detailed breakdowns as the numbers settle across all five states.
For News18 India, counting day has long been a high-visibility moment. The network is banking on its reporting reach, editorial bandwidth and technology-driven coverage to stay ahead in what is often a fiercely competitive news cycle.
With multiple battlegrounds and shifting narratives, the day promises both drama and data in equal measure. And if all goes to plan, Sabse Bada Dangal will once again turn the counting of votes into prime-time spectacle.
