In its very first week Republic TV, launched by former Times Now editor Arnab Goswami, has topped the English news channel rankings. As per the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) ratings Republic TV was the most-watched news channel in the country in its first week. News Broadcasters Association (NBA) pleaded BARC to postpone the release of data which the later preferred to overlook. Consequently, the leading English news channels decided to exit from BARC.
Republic TV registered 2.1million impressions followed by Times Now at 1.1.million. NDTV, India Today and CNN registered approximately 0.3 million impressions in the order. It is evident that other channels couldn’t withstand the Arnab’s storm. Reportedly NBA Secretary General Annie Joseph wrote to BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta that the move by BARC has serious implications and has “caused irreversible damage to India’s existing English news TV Channels”. She further alleged discrepancies in the stats on pan-India basis. Rivals are already accusing Republic TV of following unethical distribution practices and the channels is said to be registered under different genres.
Nonetheless Republic TV and Arnab are celebrating the success. Apparently, Arnab said, “The ratings reaffirm my faith that people watch what they find credible”. The channels which hoped Republic TV to be a small breeze did not anticipate it to be a storm, especially the kind of storm that rips you into pieces.
