News Broadcasting
Headbanger’s Ball
Usually my Sunday afternoon siestas are broken by Barking Boxer. He lives in the building behind ours and his weekly treat is playing cricket with his human friends on the street. He cheers loudly and unreservedly. Last Sunday, he went ballistic. The size of the ball in the narrowness of the playing area confused him and drove him ecstatic at the same time – that’s right, the kids next door had switched to footer.
As had the whole country. Not just Kerala and Goa and West Bengal. Finally, cricket fever is abating. Forgive this terrible indiscretion, but I never could understand what millions saw in twenty two men in long pants chasing a tiny ball around a wide open field, every thirty excruciating seconds, and could keep at it for hours, even days, together.
By now, the evidence that football fever has overtaken cricket is all over the place – the viewership figures of 5.2 million speak for themselves. In a couple of weeks, Intellect will tell us how much out of home television viewing occurred as well, and I would not be surprised if that added a good 50 per cent to the overall.
Last Sunday gave us the unusual and perhaps unlikely occurrence of two awesome live telecast finals almost back to back. Not middle of the road pop music cricket, but the intense mastery of stroke making jazz music tennis at primetime, and the ultimate headbanger’s ball later that night. From the classy Federer sporting a pristine white jacket bearing his family insignia, to the crassness of a skirmish that a hero will regret all his life, the evening kept audiences glued to their sets.
In sheer numbers, the total home viewing audience on July 9th in the top six cities went up by 33 per cent over the average Sunday (the average Sunday itself including a live telecast ODI cricket match between home team India and the West Indies at prime time on May 28). One and a half million more viewers were added, with the audience post 11 pm alone shooting up from 2.1 million to 4.1 million viewers. Average viewing minutes post 11 pm nearly doubled from 56 to 92 minutes.
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By now, the evidence that football fever has overtaken cricket is all over the place – the viewership figures of 5.2 million speak for themselves |
The maximum increase percentage wise was observed among male children aged 4 to 14 years – at 43 per cent. Boxer’s friends sure had a well filled day that day. While the maximum increase in volumes was observed among the 35 plus. 3.75 lakh more men tuned in to watch television on Awesome Twosome Sunday, up from 9 lakh men over 35 in these six cities on an average Sunday in summer. Plus a whole lot more in pubs, clubs and friend’s places.
And hold your breath – 3.34 lakh more women over 35 too! (One of them being me.)
All in all it was a sports lover’s treat, of course, but not just limited to the sports lover. And that’s what makes this story all that more interesting. It holds out promise for all the other deserving but so far unsupported sport in this country. Add plenty of eye candy to the promotion of the sport, speed things up a bit, pour in millions of dollars, globalize the players keeping up with the worldly new definition of ‘home’, and who knows – twenty years down the line, Barking Boxer – or his progeny – could well be keeping time to hu-tu-tu.
(With grateful thanks to aMap for the data and Deepa Menon of Intellect – LMG for the analysis).
(The author is Lintas India Director of Media Services)
(The views expressed here are those of the author and Indiantelevision.com need not necessarily subscribe to the same)
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.
