MUMBAI: While TV Today Network's Aaj Tak has clearly established itself as the number one Hindi news channel in India; it's sister concern Headlines Today seems to be pulling up its socks in trying to establish itself as the number two among the English news channels.

As per the week wise reach data in six metros sent by the channel from week 17 to week 30 (ending 24 July 2004) in the 4+ years segment, it has been noticed that while NDTV 24x7 had a reach of approximately 5000 whereas Headlines Today stood with a reach of a little more than 2000. However, at the end of week 30, while NDTV 24x7's reach remained more or less the same, that of Headlines Today was almost touching the 4000 mark, thus leaving behind BBC World, CNBC and CNN in the race.

Coming to the channel share that the two news channels command in the six metros in the 4+ years segment, it was noticed that while NDTV 24x7 had a channel share of 54 per cent in week 20, it rapidly fell to 38.9 per cent in the next 10 weeks. On the other hand, Headlines Today, which commanded a channel share of 16 per cent in week 20, it increased to 27.8 per cent in week 30, thus literally eating into NDTV 24x7's share. Whereas in the all India market, while Headlines Today had a market share of 11 per cent in week 20, it consistently grew to 22 per cent in the next 10 weeks and that of NDTV 24x7 fell from 57 per cent to 36.6 per cent.

Among the other English news channels, CNBC TV 18 had an all India channel share of 24.4 per cent in week 30, BBC World had 14.6 per cent and CNN had that of 2.4 per cent in the same period.

The channel share in the 15+ years ABC C&S for the week ending 24 July in the all day part, NDTV 24x7 had that of 32.8 per cent where as Headlines Today was not far behind with a share of 25 per cent.

Channel share in six metros during different day parts

Coming to the channel share in the six metros during the week days in the 4+ years C&S for the week ending 24 July, Headlines Today had a share of 24 per cent whereas NDTV 24x7 has a share of 41 per cent. CNBC TV 18 has that of 24 per cent, BBC World had 9 per cent and CNN had a share as low as 2 per cent. However, interesting is the fact that during the weekends in the same market and period, Headlines Today and NDTV 24x7 were at par with a channel share of 35 per cent. CNBC TV 18 had a share of 15 per cent and BBC World had that of 13 per cent. In the all day part, Headlines Today was not too far behind NDTV 24x7 with a channel share of 28 per cent and 39 per cent respectively.

Now coming to the actual time viewers spent on a particular channel. As per data provided by the TV Today Network, in the six metros in the 4+ years segment for the week ending 24 July, the highest time spent per viewer on any English news channel was on CNBC TV 18 - that of 17 minutes, whereas in the all India segment was that of 15 minutes. On the other hand, the time spent per viewer on NDTV 24x7 in the six metros was that of 15 minutes and in all India it was that of 11 minutes. Close to the heels of NDTV 24x7 was Headlines Today with the time spent per viewer in the six metros with 13 minutes and in all India it was one minute more than that of NDTV 24x7 with 12 minutes.

Moving on to another area of comparison, that of NDTV 24x7 and Headlines Today's reach in the six metros in the 4+ years for the week ending 24 July. As per the data provided by the TV Today Network, while NDTV 24x7 has a higher reach in the cities of Bangalore, Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai; Headlines Today clearly takes the cake in the southern cities of Chennai and Hyderabad. While Headlines Today had a reach of 736 million in Chennai, NDTV 24x7 has a reach of 386 million. In Hyderabad however, the disparity was not too great with Headlines Today's reach being 661 million and that of NDTV 24x7 being 658 million. In Mumbai, NDTV 24x7's reach was 1325 million whereas that of Headlines Today was 820 million. In Delhi NDTV 24x7 had a reach of 1112 million and Headline Today had that of 710 million.

Commenting on the Headlines Today’s performance TV Today marketing head Rajesh Sheshadri said, "Headlines Today is a news channel that dovetails its news delivery style to fit the fast paced lives of the predominantly urban sophists. The latest ratings gives us confidence that we are poised for further growth."