News Broadcasting
News18 Bangla, Odia, Assam North East, Kannada, and Gujarati raise the bar with their high viewerships
Mumbai: News18 Bangla, News18 Odia, News18 Assam North East, News18 Kannada, and News18 Gujarati language cluster channels have achieved outstanding performance on social media platforms in the month of March 2024.
News18 Kannada: Secured the top spot in combined YouTube and Facebook views, at 161 million. Leaving the competitors behind, the channel was closely followed by TV9 at 160 million views and NewsFirst Kannada with 144 million views.
News18 Gujarati: Secured the highest viewership on Facebook and YouTube, with an impressive 197 million views. This milestone underscores News18 Gujarati’s dominance in the region, outshining VTV News with 71 million views and TV9 Gujarati with 64 million views.
News18 Odia: Took the lead with 111 million views on YouTube, establishing itself as the top performer on the social media platform. This milestone places News18 Odia ahead of its competitors, including OTV with 109 million views, and Kanak News, which has garnered 64 million views.
News18 Assam Northeast: Delivered an outstanding performance garnering 92 million views on YouTube and Facebook combined. The channel outperformed both DY365 with 60 million views and Pratidin Time with 38 million views.
News18 Bangla: Attained the highest viewership on Facebook with 131.1 million views. The channel surpassed competitors, ABP Ananda with 129.1 million views and R Bangla with 54.3 million views.
The sources for the above views are: March’24, Crowdtangle, and SocialBlade
News Broadcasting
CNN-News18 to air live counting day coverage for five state election results on May 4
The channel is rolling out its biggest election coverage machinery yet for results day on 4th May
NOIDA: The votes have been cast. Now comes the reckoning. CNN-News18 is pulling out all the stops for results day on 4th May, when counting begins across five battleground states — West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry — in what promises to be one of the most closely watched electoral verdicts in recent memory.
The channel’s coverage, titled Battle for the States: The Verdict, kicks off at 7am and runs through the day across linear TV, connected television and YouTube. It is the culmination of CNN-News18’s multi-format editorial initiative, Battle for the States, which has tracked the polls from the beginning under the theme Road to Power.
At the operational heart of the coverage will be the Live Results Hub, the channel’s central command centre built to collate, verify and process real-time data flowing in from reporters stationed at counting centres across constituencies. The hub combines newsroom intelligence, analytics and on-the-ground reporting to deliver what the channel promises will be the fastest and most accurate results coverage in English news.
Leading the on-air charge will be primetime anchors Rahul Shivshankar, Anand Narasimhan, Aman Sharma, Nabila Jamal and Shivani Gupta. They will be joined by a wide panel of commentators including author Chetan Bhagat; GVL Narasimha Rao, senior leader of the BJP; Smita Prakash, editor of ANI; activist Saira Shah Halim; political analyst Sumanth C Raman; Abhijit Iyer Mitra, senior fellow at IPCS; Amitabh Tiwari, founder of VoteVibe; columnist Abhijit Majumdar; Nalin Mehta, managing editor of MoneyControl; political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla; senior journalist Subir Bhaumik; and political analyst Manojit Mandal.
Shivshankar, who serves as editorial affairs director at CNN-News18, set out the stakes plainly. “Counting day is one of the most watched events in the electoral cycle, where speed and credibility are tested in real time,” he said. “Battle for the States: The Verdict is built on that promise, combining ground reporting, sharp analysis and cutting-edge election technology to give viewers the clearest and fastest route to the verdict. On May 4, CNN-News18 will once again be the nation’s most trusted channel to witness democracy in action.”
Smriti Mehra, chief executive of English and Business News at Network18, framed the coverage in broader terms. “Elections are defining national events, and audiences turn to brands they trust in moments that matter,” she said. “CNN-News18 has consistently led from the front in every election coverage, and this special programming reflects the scale of our ambition and editorial strength.”
The channel has form here. It claims to have been India’s most preferred English news destination for election results for the past 20 years, covering everything from the 2024 general elections to the Delhi, Maharashtra, Bihar and BMC polls on the back of what it calls an “Always First, Always Right” record. Five states, one day, and a nation waiting for answers. The clock starts at 7am on 4th May.
