News channels` ratings zoom

For the first time, the market share of Lok Sabha TV, the channel that exclusively covers the proceedings of the lower House of Parliament, grew from 6 per cent to 7.2 per cent, an executive from aMap said.

Market share simply means that of every 10 people who had tuned in to news channels yesterday, about 5 watched the Hindi news channels, while about two were watching the English news channels.

Also, DD-National channel registered a fivefold increase in its reach during the showdown in the House, than what it had recorded during the Railway Budget on February 26.

Railway Budget, every year, tends to get more viewers compared to the General Budget that follows.

According to aMap, in terms of reach, Aaj Tak (9 million), NDTV 24x7 (4.3 million) and Doordarshan's national channel (5 million) reached the maximum people across the 80 million cable and satellite homes.

However, a comparison of ratings between the news channels and the entertainment channels showed a different picture as it outscored the ratings of news channels indicating that after the trust vote was over, cable viewers preferred their daily dose of entertainment channels.

The average ratings of Star Plus (1.4 per cent), and Zee TV (0.6 per cent) remained higher than those of the several news channels.