It looks like “Janta Janardhan” has learnt to recognise the hidden agenda of national television channels.
People punished those news channels who ran #JusticeforRhea campaign and accepted those channels that ran #JusticeforSushant campaign.
This is quite clearly indicated in Week 35 data released by BARC India. The data showed Republic TV Network’s, Republic TV and Republic Bharat, leading the market share in their respective genres. It pushed its nearest rival Times Now to second position with a big gap. While Republic TV grabbed a market share of 51.40 per cent, Times Now garnered 19.14 per cent share.
India Today Television (14.80 per cent) and CNN News 18 (11.99 per cent) retained their third and fourth positions. NDTV 24X7 (2.25 per cent) stood at fifth position.
In Hindi genre, Zee News slipped to fifth position after it ran a show depicting Sushant as a drug addict. Aaj Tak, which also ran interviews of accused Rhea Chakraborty and Sandeep Singh in Sushant death case, reported a degrowth this week.
Republic Bharat registered a market share of 19.91 per cent and the nearest competitor AajTak netted 13.25 per cent share. For the past few weeks, it was consistently performing well. In week 32, the channel had a market share of 13.94 per cent.
Taking a dig at India Today Television, Republic TV tweeted: “Dear @IndiaToday @AajTak @AroonPurie, the endless venting, ranting and brooding of your hassled anchors didn’t seem to help. Maybe you could pass this on to your news teams? It may help in redirecting their focus to the news. With our best of course.”
Republic TV also took a swipe at Aaj Tak. It tweeted: “It’s the new normal! @AajTak is a distant number 2 and @IndiaToday has outdone itself at 6 per cent at 9pm. Take our advice, @IndiaToday @AajTak @AroonPurie, the breathing exercises will help your troubled news teams make peace with this #NewNormal!”
