CNBC-TV18 tops the viewership chart on Budget Day

Network18’s news channels together garnered 13.2 per cent of the viewership during Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s speech on the day of the Union Budget on February 1, 2017. This was followed by TV Today Network with 10.8 per cent and ABP News Network with 10.2 per cent. (Source: BARC | All 4+ | 6 Mega Cities |1st Feb’17 1100-1300 hrs | Market Share out of 154 News Channels) 

On Budget day, CNBC-TV18 led the English business news channels in the country with its budget analysis. On Budget Day, all India, CNBC-TV18 was No. 1 with 86 per cent share, which was more than six times of all the competition put together (Source: BARC | NCCS AB 22+ Males |All India | Feb 01'17 | 24 hrs). ET Now was at 10 per cent, NDTV Profit and NDTV Prime at 2 per cent and BTVi had 2 per cent viewership. 

During the Finance Minister’s speech at the Parliament, all India, CNBC-TV18 was No. 1 with 92 per cent share (Source: BARC | All 4+ | All India | 1st Feb’17 1100-1300 hrs). ET Now was at 7 per cent, BTVi at 1 per cent and NDTV Profit & NDTV Prime at 0.4 per cent. 

Speaking about the groundwork and preparation that went into the Budget coverage, Avinash Kaul, Managing Director, A + E Networks | TV18 and President - Strategy, Product & Alliances, Network18, told Adgully, “A whole lot of work goes in. You think about what the theme is. We had Modi Stimulus as the theme. There is a lot of prep work which goes into building up the content towards that and aligning all the experts, corporates, bigwigs, economists and all kinds of people because there is a lot of impact on the economy, markets, industry and also the common man. So, you have to cover all the constraints. We try and get the best people on board.” 

According to Kaul, CNBC-TV18’s superlative content contributed to the channels good performance. He said, “We have the best line-up of guests, experts and continuous coverage of build-up, plus a whole lot of marketing around the Budget Day because it is the biggest event for business news and I think all of these factors put together have given us superlative shares that we are enjoying right now – 92 per cent in the Finance Minister’s speech and 86 per cent around all day.” 

CNBC-TV18’s Budget coverage included highlighting the expectations of the industry and the corporate world, market reaction in which the channel’s market experts like Ashwani Gujral and others gave advice to the people on the impact of the Budget, which stocks would perform better, which stocks were likely to witness some rough path depending on the provisions of the Budget, etc. Kaul further said, “Then there is an impact on the common people in terms of personal taxation, investments in terms of long term capital gains plus obviously the macro-economic parameters such as our fiscal deficit, revenue deficit, what it means for the rupee going forward.”