AajTak has lost faith of Hindi News viewer in this country: Arnab Goswami
Not too long-ago, Rahul Kanwal claimed that both India Today & Aaj Tak were ahead of Republic TV & Republic Bharat respectively, in terms of viewership. His claims soon came under the scanner and were accused of being misleading and dishonest. BARC data at that time proved otherwise, with or without Partho Dasgupta being in charge.
Come today, Week 32 data (8th Aug, 2020 – 14th Aug, 2020) shows Republic Bharat ranked first and ahead of Aaj Tak by a small margin in the Hindi News Urban category. The situation is exact opposite when it comes to Hindi News Rural category where Aaj Tak is leading by a small margin and Bharat is at the second position. In the Hindi News category with both markets combined, Aaj Tak is clearly leading by a narrow margin. However, in the English News category, Republic TV’s viewership is roughly the sum total of its next four competitors with India Today Television far behind at the fifth position. No other channel is even close to Republic TV.
The celebratory press release from Republic Media Network claims to have brought Aaj Tak’s 18-year-old run to a halt within just 18 months of launch, of course, conditions applied. Arnab Goswami was kind enough to talk to me today and as per him “Republic Bharat has grown because Aaj Tak has become much weaker and it doesn’t lead on the news anymore and the gradual erosion of the Aaj Tak viewership base is one of the reason why people have switched back to us and also because we are providing more compelling content than them”. Well, obviously I have heard of better reasons in response to a question asking why a channel is number one but that’s not the point here (or is it). Republic Bharat still has some miles to cover before it can call itself an undisputed leader in the HSM category. Goswami’s celebration today is one done too early although the numbers could be a cause of worry for Rahul Kanwal & team. I, however, don’t agree with Arnab much when he said, “Aaj Tak is in denial but I think they will soon realise that they have lost faith of the Hindi news viewers in this country”. Going by the overall numbers, it looks like Republic Bharat is in denial.
When I asked Arnab if he thinks the (viewership) numbers will continue to grow and if the overall lead will be substantially big and in line with his evening show, Poochta Hai Bharat in some days, Arnab replies, “Poochta Hai Bharat” slot has been big for some weeks now..for seven weeks out of eight weeks. We have consolidated all our prime-time slots and as a result what you are seeing is a consolidated organic leadership”.
All in all, what I see here is a not-new-at-all attempt by Republic Bharat in claiming the number one position in the Hindi category. With caveats, yes but by simply looking at BARC figures, it’s somewhere in the middle. I think what Rahul Kanwal’s mood was in April, Arnab Goswami’s mood is in Week 32 (August), with a difference of course. Arnab Goswami is somewhat honest in his claims and data backs up pretty much his claim.