Competition eats into Aaj Tak's market share

The share of TV Today's Hindi news channel Aaj Tak has fallen in the news broadcasting industry. This is largely due to the increased competition following the launch of several news channels in the recent past.

According to TAM viewership data, the share of Aaj Tak has declined from 50 per cent in the week ended November 16, 2002 to 29 per cent in the week ended November 3, 2003.

While the share of DD News stood at 21 per cent, Star News had 18 per cent and Zee News 25 per cent. NDTV India and Sahara Samay had a 12 per cent and six per cent share, respectively.

"We expect competition to increase with new entrants coming into news broadcasting and existing players consolidating their positions," said Aroon Purie, chairman and managing director, TV Today Network.

The competitors for Aaj Tak are Star News, Zee News, NDTV India, Sahara Samay National and DD News, while NDTV 247, BBC World, CNN and CNBC TV-18, provide competition to Headlines Today, TV Today's English news channel.

A number of news channels have been launched in 2003, including NDTV India, Star News, Sahara Samay National, NDTV 24x7.

Further, the entry of the government-controlled DD News has eaten into the shares of private news broadcasters. The channel has the advantage in that it has to be mandatorily carried on prime band by all cable operators under a direction from the government.

These have built their market share by expanding the market and also capturing the market of existing channels.

"Our competitors may not be focused on profitable growth as we are and this could disturb the news broadcasting industry's profitability dynamics," Purie warned.

As per the TAM viewership data, the market share of Aaj Tak has declined from approximately 38 per cent in the Hindi news genre in terms of number of viewers for the week ended October 25, 2003, to approximately 29 per cent for the week ended November 15.

As per the TAM viewership data, TV Today's reach has declined from 24.9 million viewers for the week ended October 25, 2003 to 22.7 million viewers for the week ended November 15.

Factors such as changes in viewer preferences, DD News' greater reach due to its terrestrial nature, and changes in advertiser preferences could adversely affect Aaj Tak's business.

TV Today launched its initial public offer recently.