Barack Obama cheers news channels as viewership zooms

US president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle brought smiles to not only children with whom they shook a leg or the college students with whom they interacted, but also got one on the lips of Indian news channel owners. On Sunday, many more people tuned into Hindi and English news channels to watch the coverage of the visit.

The market share of English news channels — CNN-IBN, Headlines Today, NDTV 24x7 and Times Now —zoomed 44 per cent compared to the previous Sunday. According to data from overnight TV audience monitoring agency aMap, the ratings of the four English news channels put together surged from 1.74 per cent to 2.5 per cent in the 7 pm to 11 pm prime-time band in the top six metros in cable and satellite (C&S) households. On Sunday, news channels repeatedly showed footage of the US president and his wife dancing with kids and the president’s interaction with students of St Xavier’s college here.

English business news channels — NDTV Profit, ET NOW, CNBC TV18 and UTV Bloomberg — fared even better, as their market share rose 116 per cent to 1.58 per cent of the total viewership pie from 0.73 per cent on October 31. English movies, niche and lifestyle channels bore the brunt as viewers shifted loyalties in favour of news channels. The market share of the English niche genre dropped by 67 per cent as compared to last Sunday across the top six metros.

The picture was not different with Hindi news channels, as the their share — Aaj Tak, DD News, IBN 7, India TV, NDTV India, Star News and Zee TV — rose 25 per cent, from 3.33 per cent of the total viewership pie on October 31 to 4.17 per cent on November 7 in the metros in north, west and eastern India. In the 7 pm-11 pm time-band, Hindi business news channels — CNBC Awaaz and Zee Business — had an increase of 19 per cent in their viewership, while Hindi movie channels suffered.