How all television channels were ‘No. 1’ on Budget Day

The CNBC TV18 ad said the channel led “across English news channels on Budget Day,across audiences”. CNN-IBN claimed to have been “the most preferred English news channel” on the day.

Times Now said it was the “No. 1 English news channel on Budget Day with 34 per cent viewership shares”.

“Nobody is lying. Factually,everybody is correct,” says Dilip Venkatraman,CEO,CNN-IBN.

His counterpart at CNBC TV18 and CNBC Awaaz,Anil Uniyal,explains. “The devil is in the fine print. It is all about slicing and dicing the data.”

So,CNBC TV 18 claimed maximum viewership among the male audience in the age group of 25 years and above in the cable and satellite households,whereas CNN-IBN said it was most watched among the male audience cutting across all age groups in all six metros.

Times Now said it was the most watched channel during Pranab Mukherjee’s Budget speech.

Going by these parameters,CNBC TV18 was the most viewed English channel in the business as well as general news category. In the business news segment,it had a 61 per cent market share,followed by ET Now (22 per cent). The general English news segment was led by CNN-IBN (35 per cent),followed by Times Now (27 per cent).

“Budget is like a one-day World Cup cricket match… It is,therefore,an interesting opportunity for broadcasters to create perceptions about one’s worthiness,” says Sunil Lulla,CEO,Times Global Broadcasting,the Bennett,Coleman Group.