Ormax: News channels gain popularity on Thackeray's funeral and Kasab's execution

As per the Ormax TV Track study, the news category showed 34 per cent increase in viewership in the week from November 18-22, compared to the previous week. Aaj Tak's average daily reach increased from 17 per cent to 23 per cent, while for ABP News, the reach increased from 13 per cent to 17 per cent.

Ormax Media's syndicated research, Ormax TV Track suggests that amongst all the genres, the viewership of news channels has seen a steep rise in the previous week (November 18 to 24). The main reasons that spurred this increase, apparently, are Bal Thackeray's funeral on Sunday and Kasab's execution on Wednesday.

All news channels had telecast various feature and news stories based on the two big events in the past week, including profiling of the Maharashtra leader, the rise of his political party and detailed analyses.

Likewise, the capital punishment given to the 26/11 accused attracted much discussion during the past four years. After the sudden execution of Kasab, many stories came out as to why and how the government implemented the much-awaited decision.

Apart from this, the start of the winter session of the Parliament on Thursday has also pushed the ratings up.

As per the Ormax TV Track study, the news category showed 34 per cent increase in viewership during the week, compared to the previous week (November 11 to 17). Aaj Tak's average daily reach increased from 17 per cent to 23 per cent, while for ABP News, the reach increased from 13 per cent to 17 per cent.

Commenting on the results, Shailesh Kapoor, CEO, Ormax Media, says, "Last week was an unusually busy week for news channels. An increase in recall is indicative of both a higher volume of audience, as well as higher engagement levels with the content. Movie channels were affected the most as a result, while GECs and other niche categories seemed unaffected."

Ormax TV Track records viewership of television channels based on day-after-recall (DAR). The weekly research covers 1,400 respondents every week, across 17 cities.