By A Correspondent

Given the recent controversies around ratings etc, the Republic Media Network finds itself with competition out to get at it. Especially on the all-important issue of ratings.

Republic’s contention is that being free-to-air, its reach is phenomenal. And in order to drive that point home, it supplied us with Chrome DM data of over the last four years.

MxMIndia has over recent years not reported on any Chrome DM findings, but given that Republic had a fair point in giving us the data on OTS (Opportunity To See), we examined it.

This is what we got as part of a communique from Republic TV.

Source: Chrome Live, Mkt- All India Urban, 2017-2020

The Republic TV release added: “As seen the Republic TV OTS in Urban homes has been higher than Times Now since 2019 making it the largest available English brand in Urban Homes in India. Republic TV OTS has been higher than Times NOW since 2018. The distribution and availability of the channel has been extremely high in comparison to any other channel in the genre.  The gap has widened into “Reach” in 2019 and 2020 as the TRAI implemented the New Tariff Order making sure Republic TV’s free to air offering in English increased its footprint across homes through India.  It is very much evident from the chart that the share of news genre got expanded from 2017, post the entry of Republic TV.”

Pankaj Krishna

Said Pankaj Krishna, Founder and CEO, Chrome DM in the communique: “After a point and irrespective of genre, the key differentiator amongst players within the genre boils down to the availability of content. Considering the fact that distribution is still contingent on a 1000+ variables (DPOs/ CNOs) and is one of the biggest cost centres for running a linear TV channel – unless of course it is a hugely appointment led genre, for instance for Hindi GEC. Most of the genres – be it News (Hindi/  English/ Regional), Music, Infotainment, the time spent per viewer limits to less than ten minutes a week and is mostly driven by channel surfing or flirting, if I may call it. A differentiator of 15-20% on distribution between any 2-3 players within a genre would probably be the factor deciding the lead in the consumption / viewership / ratings within the genre. LCN (logical channel number), Placement (where your channel falls), Neighbourhood (the channel that precedes you), the packages that you are on (whether your channel reaches 100% audiences and the penetrations of the packages that your channel is a part of) – all of these factors determine the OTS (Opportunity to See) or the availability of a channel which is the primary key factor in determining the dominance of one over the other.”

Vikas Khanchandani

Added Vikas Khanchandani – Group CEO Republic Media Network: “Republic Network has focused and delivered the largest reach platforms in its respective genres. The above data sourced from Chrome DM (also readily available across the industry) is yet another data point that reflects on the growth and leadership that our brand enjoys. There are multiple data points like the engagement of Republic TV on social media which is also highest within its genre reflecting the stickiness of our brand and reflective of high TSV that the brand enjoys. We have similar data points for our humongous consumption on OTT as our brand has very wide availability on connected devices and I am more than confident that we will continue to bring the largest English and Hindi news platforms for consumers and advertisers”.

We chatted with Pankaj Krishna via WhatApp and asked him to validate the data. Our conversation:

Us: Since I don’t track Chrome data on a regular basis, I would like to know if this data is good to be carried and inferred that Republic TV (English) has better OTS than Times Now. Or has it been sliced in a way that Republic OTS is seen to be better than Times Now when actually the converse is true?

His answer: The data is fine. Also since Republic is Free to Air…

Our revert: Thanks. Is there any data like this that could also place Times Now or any other channel ahead?

Him: Negative – this is Universe data.

Us, trying our luck: Given that broadcasters are known to slice data so that what is put across is favourable to them?

Him: Correct. This can’t be discrete to cherrypicked data points

Last one: Frankly, I don’t want to be seen having a bias in favour of any channel? 🙂

Him: Same here…. I don’t have any inclination to any channel or newsroom or point of view- but beyond a point with proliferation of content, it does become a commodity – where availability plays a bigger role…