News Broadcasting
News channels see viewership fall in BARC week 14
MUMBAI: For the second consecutive week, news broadcasters have slumped marginally across languages in week 14 (4-10 April) of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India as against week 13 (28 March-3 April). Hindi news channels fell by nearly seven per cent and English by 10 per cent.
According to a joint report of BARC and Nielsen India on crisis consumption, the news genre has continued to grow exponentially by over 200 per cent in terms of viewership than its peers. The growth in week 14 is compared to pre-COVID-19 combine weeks of two and four (11- 31 January)
This is the fourth straight week that the audience has been flocking to watch the news more than any other category due to the rising concern over the COVID-19 crisis. Week 12 of BARC has so far reported an exponential rise in terms of viewership of news channels across languages.
Aaj Tak has topped the chart for the straight fourteenth week in the top five news channels’ list. However, the channel fails to retain its earlier week's performance and slumped by over 13 per cent to 372,688 weekly impressions this week as compared to 429,900 impressions in the previous week.
For the straight third week, Aaj Tak has become the number one TV channel in India in 2+plus category. Not just other news channels, the channel has also surpassed the most-watched general entertainment and movie channels in terms of viewership.
Maintaining its second lead for the third straight week, APB News marginally fell by over five per cent to 295,264 weekly impressions in the current week than 311,382 impressions in the last week. The channel has become the second-most watched TV channel across genre in week 14 of BARC.
Reclaiming its third spot after two weeks, India TV reported almost the same performance in terms of viewership this week as that of the previous week. The channel, however, grew with a very acute margin of 0.3 per cent to 283,103 weekly impressions this week versus 282,228 impressions in the last week.
Republic Media Network’s Hindi news channel Republic Bharat, improving its ranking this week, has climbed up to the fourth spot from fifth. The channel, however, dropped slightly in terms of viewership by nearly three percent to 272,602 weekly impressions in week 14 as against 280,219 in the previous week.
The channel's prime time debate shows – Mahabharat and Poochta Hai Bharat – become the most-watched between 6 pm to 9 pm during week 14. Republic Bharat was ahead of Aaj Tak with a mere 0.1 per cent, the former the lead with 15.3 per cent of the market share, whereas the latter giving cut-throat competition was at 15.2 per cent during the same time slot.
Zee Media’s Hindi news channel Zee News has not only fallen in ranking but also in terms of viewership. The channel tumbled by over 10 per cent to 270,066 weekly impressions in week 14 as compared to 300,324 impressions in the earlier week. From the second spot in week 11, the channel is positioned at the fifth position in the current week of BARC.
In the English category, Republic TV has maintained its dominance for the fourteenth week straight in terms of viewership. However, the channel, this week, declined marginally by around nine per cent to 1896 weekly impressions than 2082 impressions in the previous week. The channel has reported all-time high viewership numbers in the week 13 of BARC.
Majority of the channel’s viewership is drawn from its super prime-team debate show hosted by the network’s editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami. For the fourth week in a row, Republic TV has been the most-watched channel from 9 pm to 11 pm with a market share of 63 per cent.
Times Network’s English news channel Times Now has become the second most-preferred news channel for the straight fourteenth week of BARC. The channel, however, fell substantially in terms of viewership by over 28 per cent to 922 impressions this week versus 1284 impressions in week 13.
Network18’s English news channel CNN-News18 has improved its performance not only in terms of ranking but also in viewership. The channel, securing third spot, has gained substantially by over 40 per cent to 917 weekly impressions as compared to 653 impressions in the earlier week of BARC.
TV Today’s English news channel India Today fell to the fourth position from third for the first time in the last four weeks. The channel declined substantially by over 26 per cent to 866 weekly impressions in the current week as compared to 1182 impressions week 13. The channel had seen all-time high viewership gain in the previous week of BARC.
Making it in top five English news channels’ list for the second consecutive week, ZEE Media’s Wion has report marginally gain by over 0.6 per cent to 627 weekly impressions compared in week 14 to 623 impressions in the earlier week of BARC.
News Broadcasting
Senior media executive Madhu Soman exits Zee Media
Former Reuters and Bloomberg leader says he leaves with “no regrets” after brief stint at WION and Zee Business
NOIDA: Madhu Soman, a veteran of global newsrooms and media sales floors, has stepped away from Zee Media Corporation after a short stint steering business strategy for WION and Zee Business.
In a reflective LinkedIn note marking his departure, Soman said his time within the network’s corridors was always likely to be brief. “Some chapters close faster than expected,” he wrote, signalling the end of a nearly two-year spell in which he oversaw both editorial partnerships and commercial strategy.
Soman joined Zee Media in 2022 after more than a decade abroad with Reuters and Bloomberg, returning to India to take on the role of chief business officer for WION and Zee Business. His mandate was ambitious: bridge the newsroom and the revenue desk while expanding digital and broadcast reach.
During the stint, Zee Business reached break-even for the first time since its launch in 2005, while WION refreshed programming and strengthened its digital footprint across platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.
But Soman suggested the cultural fit proved uneasy. Describing himself as a “cultural misfit”, he hinted at deeper tensions between editorial instincts shaped in global newsrooms and the realities of India’s television news ecosystem.
Before joining Zee, Soman spent more than seven years at Bloomberg in Hong Kong as head of broadcast sales for Asia-Pacific, expanding the company’s news syndication business across several markets. Earlier, he held senior editorial roles at Reuters, overseeing online strategy in India and managing Reuters Video Services from London.
His career began in television and wire reporting, including a stint with ANI during the 1999 Kargil conflict, before moving into digital publishing as India’s internet media landscape took shape.
Now, after nearly three decades in broadcast and digital media, Soman is leaving Delhi NCR and returning to his hometown, Trivandrum.
Exhausted, he admits. But unbowed. And with one quiet line that sums up the journey: he didn’t sell his soul — because some things, after all, are not for sale.
