The Hindi news channels have recorded a four-fold jump in their ratings for November 27, beating even those recorded by the English news channels, as millions of anxious viewers remained glued on to their television sets watching every moment of the real-time gunbattle taking place in south Mumbai.

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According to data provided by the Mumbai-based online ratings agency aMap, during November 26-27 the Hindi news channels have recorded a viewership of 6-7 per cent of the total cable and TV homes (above 15 years of age) between 9 pm and 11pm. On the other hand, those recorded by the English news channels remained 0.8-1 per cent. A day before, the average viewership of the Hindi news channel was 1 to 2 per cent.

Aaj Tak leads the Hindi news genre with a gross rating point (GRP) of 28.8 on November 27, up from 7.9 recorded a day before. Other channels that got high GRP included India TV (21), Star News (20.6), IBN7 (17.5) and NDTV India (10.2), said the aMap data.

The GRP is the summation of the television rating points generated in a day and is used as the currency for negotiating the advertising rates on television channels. Incidently, a number of English news channels continued with the live coverage without any commercial break while their Hindi counterparts were taking the commercial pauses every 60 minutes, say sources in the media planning agencies who were monitoring most of the news channels.

Even on the parameters of market share in the Hindi news genre, Aaj Tak recorded a high 5.2 per cent, up from 1.5 per cent the previous day. This apart, there was a 3-4 fold increase in the market share of most leading Hindi news channels including India TV (3.8 per cent), Star News (3.7 per cent) IBN7 (3.1 per cent), and NDTV India (1.8 per cent) among others, the aMap data said.

According to aMap, these numbers represent 15 year old-plus viewers of cable and satellite homes across the country, except the data from Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa. There are estimated to be about 80 million cable and satellite homes in the country.

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