Times Now MD& CEO MK Anand welcomed the resumption of BARC audience data for news channels, saying the network has been able to keep pace with changing viewer preferences.

MK Anand said, “The last two years have been extremely tough, with the pandemic transforming the world. People’s lives changed dramatically altering consumer behavior across all categories, be it food, fashion, holidays, entertainment, or news consumption. The news space saw an added disruption with alleged malpractices unearthed in the rating system impacting viewer sentiment. All in all, there was trepidation when approaching the date, as to how News consumption has changed and how that would impact our shares. We are happy to note that our efforts to keep up with changing consumer preferences have been reciprocated by viewers.”

“Times Now has seen a marked increase in Reach and Time Spent and our Gross Ratings has increased by 20%, vis a vis our performance in 2020 when the ratings were suspended. With renewed consumer appetite for news, the comparative ratings have been shaken up with Times Now shining as the true leader. Our Reach has increased across the Universal TG of 2+, which is an indicator of good health. Besides this, we are stronger in Prime Time than before and are also showing a marked preference by the reigning TG of 15-60 years. Besides this, Hindi is an important space that we are watching, and are happy to see the changes in rankings in that space and welcome the new leader, TV9 Bharatvarsh. Two of the top 3 HNCs being nonlegacy players is an indicator that the Hindi news viewer wants to change. Our attention is now going to be on putting Times Now Navbharat into the top set asap.”

Meanwhile, earlier today BARC said it’s resuming the ratings for news channels with added checks and balances.

BARC Team, along with the BARC TechComm, developed the Augmented Data Reporting Standards for News and Special Interest genres, aligned with the Industry’s needs.

Sensitive to the industry’s need for past data for informed and equitable decision making, and as advised, BARC India will also release data for the previous 13 weeks, i.e., for the period of Week 49, 2021 to Week 9, 2022, only for the channels that have not chosen to opt-out from receiving this data, which will also be based on a 4-week rolling average.

According to a statement issued by BARC India, The data will be released over the next 3 working days.

In order to familiarise our valuable subscribers with these new reporting standards, BARC India held webinars where detailed explanations were provided, and questions answered.

This review process has not only resulted in a statistically sound and effective solution that works in the interest of the entire ecosystem but has also helped evolve changes in the reporting for Special Interest Genre Channels.