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
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.
