The incessant rains that derailed Kerala has kept viewers in the state hooked on to their television sets who are relying on the medium to keep track of the situation. With 214.1 million Impressions, Week 32 (4-10th August) saw the highest peak for Malayalam News genre in 2018. The genre saw a 98% growth in the week compared to the average of the previous 4 weeks that helped News channels like Asianet News and Manorama News to overtake the primary GECs like Mazhavil Manorama, Surya TV and Flowers TV.
According to the BARC data for week 33 Malayalam News Channels managed to hijack the General Entertainment Channels in the ratings chart by infiltrating in to the top orders in the ratings chart. With a meteoric rise in viewership Asianet News grabbed the No. 2 position in overall market with 512 GRPs (CS Male AB22+ U+R) in week 33 (285 GRP in week 32) standing next to market leader Asianet (815 GRPs). Manorama News took the No. 3 position in order with 293 GRPs pushing Mazhavil Manorama, Surya TV and Flowers TV to No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 position respectively. Mathrubhumi News Channel became No. 7 in order with 183 GRPs.
Kerala has a total TV population of close to 31.3 million. Out of this, around 25.8 million people watched Malayalam news in week 32. This means that 8 out of 10 people in the state sampled news in this week. Out of the state’s total TV viewership, 17% came from Malayalam News Genre alone, with every viewer spending an average of 1 hr 3 mins watching news.
The viewership recorded in this period was the highest for the year in the Kerala market as can be inferred from the chart below.
Source: BARC India/Week 1-32 2018/Kerala/Universe/imp’000s(sum)
Friday alone accounted for 34% of the total news viewership for the week at 72.8 million impressions.
Source: BARC India/Week 32 2018/Kerala/Universe/ imp’000s(sum)
The age wise split for the viewership has been given below. Out of the total news viewers, 21% were youth (15-30 year olds).
Source: BARC India/Week 32 2018/Kerala/Universe/ imp’000s(sum)
While Asianet News stood at the top with 36% of total news viewership, Manorama News, Media One TV, People TV and News 18 Kerala also gained more than 2 times the average ratings of its previous four weeks.
Source: BARC India/Kerala/Universe/ imp’000s(sum)
This is the second highest viewership peak recorded for Malayalam news genre since BARC India started measuring TV viewership. The highest so far was 215.1 million Impressions generated on the back of coverage of molestation case filed against a leading Actor in the Malayalam Film industry.
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