International Journal of Education and Psychological Research

(Print and Online Peer Reviewed Journal)


Print - ISSN: 2349 - 0853
e - ISSN: 2279 - 0179

VOLUME 2 - ISSUE 2

(June 2013)

A Study of Viewership Preference Patterns of News Channels with


Authors: Sachin Sinha

Pages: 79-85

Abstract:

It was once called the media revolution. A better description today would be ‘media explosion’. There are innumerable media-generated stimuli that are floating around in the environment of the human sensory system, bombarding it with an electrifying intensity and velocity. The common man has become both a beneficiary and a victim of the proliferation of media channels. The human need for entertainment is as old as the human species is. The cable and satellite television channel industry has been going all out to woo the viewers in catering to this fundamental need of theirs. The genre of news channels is a key player in the whole spectrum of media. The present study is based on the identification of viewership preference patterns of news channels with special reference to Zee news. Through this channel Zee Network has always been on a quest to bring out the truth. It is the strong belief of the channel that has been the guiding spirit in its dedication and integrity in reporting unbiased news. As a result of this study it was found that viewers of news channels are not hungry for news alone. They would like their news to be served to them with all the possible garnishing and topping. The competition in the news channel industry in the current scenario hinges on this very factor. The paper attempts to explore the impact of news anchors on the viewership, the effect of repositioning efforts, and preference for interview based news programmes. The paper has come up with the research finding that Zee News, which was the pioneer among the news channels in the cable and the satellite TV industry has gradually slipped to the fourth position. This has been primarily because of inadequate attention paid to the training of anchors and lack of consistency in image of the channel.