The News Minute | December 15, 2014 | 10:55 pm IST
There has always been a fierce battle for higher TRP ratings among television channels to attract a higher number of advertisers and in turn increase their revenue.
With more news channels vying for TRPs in Telangana and Andhra, the battle has just come tougher.
The last few weeks witnessed three news channels maintain the top three slots. While TV 9 has been consistently on top of the TRP charts, TV 5 and N TV are trailing close behind.
Taking into consideration the last two weeks, TV9 has managed to stay atop the list with the TRP rating increasing from 131/132 to 141/131. TV5 has also seen an increase from 121/126 to 132/121 replacing NTV from the second spot. The ratings of NTV have gone down from 122/125 to 118/122 in the 15+ age group.
All the Telugu news channels in both the states have a common TRP list as the agency responsible for the survey is yet to separate the news channels of the two states.
There are three major geographical regions where the Telugu media as a whole focuses to increase its ratings. The first region is Hyderabad, the second one is AP (includes Vijaywada and Vizag) and the third region is the cities and towns with a population of less than ten lakh.
There are also categories according to the viewer’s age group, the ones taken into account are 15+ male and 25+ male.
Channels always score well in the 15+ group, though the main group that most advertisers focus on in 25+.
TV9 was started in 2004 and it came at a time when there was a dire need of new Telugu channels. It has managed to stay at number one with aggressive news coverage and multiple attempts to telecast breaking news every day.
TV5 on the other hand follows a more conventional format of reporting news and NTV seems to be following in TV9’s footsteps with a competitive style of news reporting.
TV5 a news channel by Shreya Broadcasting Pvt Ltd. is an Andhra based channel is owned by businessman BR Naidu. Naidu who used to run a travel agency struck it rich with a hair product called Nuzen Hair oil. Much of the profits from the hair oil business and subsequent businesses were channeled into the news channel and other media ventures.
NTV or New Generation TV is owned by the Rachana Television Private Limited (RTPL). A businessman called Narendra Chowdhury is the chairman and managing director of RTPLA and the channel.
There are also particular programs that seem to grab the viewer’s attention with TV9’s “Prime Time” show grabbing the maximum attention and TV5 doing really well on its women oriented programs. NTV’s political shows always seem to strike a chord among the viewers.