The verdict is out. Rajat Sharma's Hindi news channel, India TV, won hands down on Sunday, March 13, the day of the 'casting couch' sting operation on actor Shakti Kapoor.
With a channel share of 22.4 per cent on Sunday, India TV beat the market leader Aaj Tak which was number two at 20.2 per cent market share.
NDTV India and Star News followed with a channel share of 18 per cent and 14 per cent, respectively. The channel share figures have been compiled by TAM for the Hindi-speaking markets in the 15 plus age group in cable and satellite homes.
The jump seems dramatic especially when compared to the channel's performance on the Week 11 Sunday, that is, on March 6 when its share was 7.5 per cent and Aaj Tak blazed the trail with 30.1 per cent.
During Week 12 (between March 13 2005 and March 19, 2005), India TV improved its overall channel share in the Hindi news category. The channel's share jumped from 6.7 per cent in the previous week to touch 11.5 per cent in Week 12.
After the Shakti Kapoor episode, India TV also aired its special sting operation programme on television artist Aman Verma, which may have helped the channel to hold on to the eyeballs it attracted on Sunday, say media experts.
A senior marketing executive at a rival channel says that India TV was smart to have scheduled the Shakti Kapoor programme on a Sunday as the TAM viewership data collection period is from Sunday to Saturday.
"The channel was clever to immediately follow the Shakti Kapoor episode with another sting operation on a popular TV star. So the impact of the two episodes got combined into one week's ratings," he says.
Will India TV manage to retain its viewers? "A one-off coup is unlikely to sustain viewership," says a news channel source.
