With demonetisation hovering over our heads, people definitely have some opinions to make and some reality at stake.
The demonetisation of the INR 500 and INR 1,000 currency notes at 8pm on the eve of the US election 2016 results by the PM of India Mr. Narendra Modi was a surprise announcement that triggered a significant upward kink in media chatter.
According to a report by Maxus “Demonetisation accounted for 6 of the top 10 trending topics since the announcement of which Mr.Narendra Modi garnered half of the trending topics. #IamwithModi and #Modi were the topics that made up for 19% of the conversations within the top 10 trends. Cricket shared a bit of the spotlight from demonetisation thanks to the ongoing England-India test series.
Many news channels tried their hand at broadcasting the news and views of the veterans to make the common people more aware of the situation at hand.
Sighting more precisely, Aaj Tak , the leading news channel got ahead of GEC and Movie Channels including Colors, Zee Cinema, Sony MAX, Star Plus, Zee TV and Sony Entertainment (Cov’000, India, TG 15+ NCCS AB, Wk46, All India) recently , making it the No.1 News Channel across HSM, HSM Urban, HSM Rural, All India, All India – Urban, All India – Rural and Prime Time in Demonetisation Weeks (SOURCE:-BARC, TG:- 15+, NCCS All, Mkt:- As mentioned, Time:- 2:00-26:00, Prime Time 18:00-24:00,Period:- Wk:- 45’16 -46’16(avg), Share% based on 12 Hindi channels). In addition the channel has broken a record of 182 Million in Coverage (Source: BARC; Market: All India, TG:4+ NCCS All, Period: Wk 46’16, Time Band: 0200-2600).
The news channel once again led as the pioneer with multiple show formats, live updates from the ground, discussions with the top experts in studio and updates on the news developments. The reporters from the channels were on ground across different cities, towns, villages and kept the whole nation updated on the developing story around demonetisation.
Commenting on the ratings, Mr. Ashish Bagga, Group CEO – India Today Group said “Aaj Tak is built on an unwavering commitment towards excellence in journalism and unbiased news reporting. The latest viewership trend during News of National interest clearly establishes the trust that viewers hold on Aaj Tak”.
If we look across the media, a total of 23 brands were linked to the top 10 trending topics during the past fortnight. These brands factored in slightly over 30% of the total conversations of which PayTM (avg. 53% association) and SBI (avg. 16% association) carved out the larger part of the Brand Share of Conversation. Samsung and Amazon also managed to gain a significant share of overall conversations however Samsung conversations were largely based on humorous conversations around the Samsung Galaxy Note and demonetisation of currency notes.
The top 5 metros reflected similar patterns of Moods where Action dominated the moods however there were some days especially like the 17th of Nov in Delhi when the expression of Calm gave way to Action. Additionally Tamil Nadu showed a blip towards Anxiety on the 18, 19th and 21st of Nov 2016 when subsequent announcements of the demonetisation easing by the government and news of the CM Ms. Jayalalithaa seemed to have driven up the specific mood.
Overall across the top cities in India there is a sense of patient restraint as the demonetisation moves on into the 3rd week and nears the critical end of the month period when cash flows really come into play.