Republic vs TimesNow, Who leads in which State?
Channels use BARC data very cleverly to show where they are winning and where they are not. And since we donot have access to BARC ratings beyond the national level, we use Google Search to estimate the popularity of each channel in the top States of India. The way Google shares data, we only know who is leading and by what level and not beyond that.
Firstly when it comes to BARC viewership data of 11th to 17th April, Republic had twice the viewership of TimesNow. However, when it comes to Ad rates (and please don’t fully rely on these numbers), TimesNow enjoys an advantage over Republic.
But when it comes to Google, Republic was only 50% higher.
Which are the big States where Republic Dominates Heavily versus TimesNow?
Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Bengal
Which are the big States where TimesNow Dominates Heavily versus Republic?
Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Assam
Which are the big States where battle is close?
Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra
There is no clear pattern in the way Republic does better than TimesNow or the other way around.
So what we did was look at a longer period (30 days) and see if the patterns hold
Which are the big States where Republic Dominates Heavily versus TimesNow?
Jharkhand, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Bengal, Odisha, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh
In a longer time frame, patterns change suggesting that the dominance or lack of it is perhaps much more driven by Topic Choices and Editorial attitude. This is of course on top of some base loyalty which could be with the channel or the main anchor. This also explains why TimesNow did not collapse soon after Arnab left but did not beat Republic either given the base level loyalty for Arnab Goswami