Current Affairs Programs Ratings - January 2009
Category Featured Articles | Posted on January 30, 2009 |
We conducted a survey earlier this month (January 2009) through our visitors about the current affairs programs on different TV Channels. Results of the survey has been compiled and we would like to share them with you beginning with some of our own comments:
Live with Talat continues to rock at number 1 in terms of popularity and even gets a 4.65% boost in its ratings since August 2008. Talat Hussain is no doubt the most articulate anchorperson with the strong analytical abilities. He covers diversified topics and also works hard for preparation of programme theme. He dared to present programs focused solely on Research and Analysis, specifically after Mumbai attacks, which required a lots of efforts in contrast to traditional Masala Talk Shows. Talat sometimes gets into exaggeration and gets carried away in his comments and opinions that are often misfit for his otherwise cool but assertive personality.
Off the Record made a huge leap from 4th to 2nd position with 33.10% increase in ratings. Kashif Abbasi is the boldest anchorperson in Pakistani media at the moment. He recently covered very unconventional but very important topics. He is the only anchorperson who can dare to discuss the 'No Go Area' topics. The recent threats to Kashif by the officials also proved the impact of his talk shows on general public. His programmes and initiatives to discuss and the basic questions regarding constitution, rule of law, democracy in political parties, etc. were highly appreciated by audience, specifically by educated community. Kashif sometimes goes off track from the main topic where "Time Pass" becomes the main objective of the program. His other drawback seems to be his affiliation with ARY, a channel that has recently taken a clear U-Turn against the movement for Rule of Law, which is evident from their relatively low coverage of the movement in favour of least important issues, personalities and parties.
Capital Talk slid down from 2nd to 3rd position with 10.19% drop in popularity due to monotonous programmes, but it is still liked by masses due to simple format, simple questions, cunning and sharp personality of Hamid Mir with a good show of his PR as evident by the guests in his shows. Also, sometimes he goes out of studio in search of new topics of public interest. Apart from that massive number of audience for GEO, his columns in Daily Jang are a big plus point for him. He often gets involved in non-objective discussion in attempt to attract more audience by adding spicy questions.
Kal Tak of Express News gained the most and massive ratings of 51.21% in just 5 months and now stands at number 4, gaining a single position from previous number 5. Kal Tak, has recently picked up quite considerably mainly due to success of monologue by Javed Chaudhry in the beginning and at the end of programme. Javed Chaudhry is rated as the most popular Urdu Columnist at the moment and this has become the main strength for success of his programme Kal Tak. Due to his good PR, he often attracts a good panel of guests. Due to less experience in electronic media, he often finds it difficult to moderate the programme properly and the discussions sometimes go out of control. His monologues, though popular in masses, are many times inaccurate and sensational. For Express TV, his programme without any doubt is the brand they can sell as current affairs program.
Meray Mutabiq is at number 5, which makes it a huge comeback for Dr. Shahid Masood since he was not hosting this program until just a few months ago. Dr. Shahid Masood is the most controversial and debated personality of current affairs. Due to his recent job with Government, whatever he say and how true that might be, his personal credibility will take quite some time before it is full recovered. He faced a lot of anger from public at the restart of Meray Mutabiq after the Dry Cleaning drama under the name of Jawab Deyh by Iftikhar Ahmed. But after few weeks of humiliating low ratings, the Gaza crisis put Dr. Shahid Masood on the front foot again as he covered the issue with great depth. The Gaza episodes along with the last episode with attacks focused on Zardari gave his programme a real boost and helped him claim back territory. In short, he is gaining his popularity again if not the respect. After his come back, there has been a mysterious link of all his discussions going to lead a possible Military Takeover in future. Also after his come back, mysteriously it were the pro- establishment circles (supporting otherwise, anti-politician, pro-army, anti- judicial stance) that came to rescue him and were the only voice for him in the beginning.
Bolta Pakistan dropped its ratings 15.43% and slid from number 3 to number 6. Bolta Pakistan was once a top rated popular programme due to its different and unique format, boldness of anchors (when Musharraf was a common target) and finally despite being a Right and Left wing combination, the EXCELLENT synchronisation of both anchors, like top football forwards. But it seems that the COD of anchors of Bolta Pakistan is meeting the same fate as the COD between PMLN and PPP. Nusrat has been the main target of angry audience due to his tilt towards Zardari and Mushtaq also has been obviously looking compromised frequently, as if the only purpose for him is to some how continue the programme even if it is at the cost of popularity of programme. Direct phone calls was and is still a distinct feature of the programme, but recently, the frequency of calls has been reduced that is another factor in the declining popularity of this programme. Often due to some mysterious limitations, they end up discussing topics, not of interest to masses and it raises questions why more important topics were ignored. Their episodes to interview different top politicians were also failure, as in most of the cases, the audience could not get answers to the real questions asked or even to the questions asked by anchors, which leads to the suspicion that this program is just a PR campaign.
Islamabad Tonight with Nadeem Malik makes its space in top 10 programs at number 7, despite being a new presentation from AAJ TV beating many programmes of different channels that were in the market for a long time. Good preparation, presentation and unique way to put pinching questions to the guests using his strong analytical abilities and up-to-date knowledge of Local & Global news and developments are the main strengths of Nadeem Malik. He moderates the programme well and tries his best not to leave the questions go unanswered or diverted to usual fairytales. However, Nadeem needs to change his body language to be more assertive and a bit aggressive in order to get attention of audience at opening of the shows. AAJ TV should also consider rescheduling the programme to cover weekends (Saturday and Sunday) when not many programmes are available. It should create a good opportunity to attract new audience market, at least for next 4-5 months. Making this from 5 episodes per week to 4 would also not be a bad idea, considering the competition within AAJ TV, and due to the fact that not many unique topics are available in the market and redundancy may decrease the overall ratings of programme.________________________________________________________
Summary of Results:
A total of 1,000 votes were allowed, where every user was asked to tell us the top 10 programs of his choice, out of which the first 5 were mandatory. The ratings were calculated by using weights for each position of the choice in descending order.
For instance, we counted the number of times Live with Talat was voted in top position, 2nd position and so on. We used 10 as weight for the top choice position, 9 for second and so on until "1″ weight for last position.
The ratings for the top programs are fairly accurate as per the choice of visitors of PKPolitics. The ratings for lower programs are not so accurate due to the fact that the last 5 options were optional, as well as PKPolitics does not publish most of these programs regularly.
The ratings of TV channels were generated by calculating the sum of all their programs:
AAJ TV Ratings = Live with Talat + Bolta Pakistan + Islamabad Tonight + 4 Man Show + Control Line
Geo Ratings = Capital Talk + Hum Sab Umeed + Meray Mutabiq + Kamran Khan + 50 Minutes + Left Right + Jawab Deyh + Choraha + Crises Cell + Nadia
Express Ratings = Kal Tak + Column Kaar + Siyasi Log
ARY OneWorld Ratings = Off the Record + Insight with Javed Malik + Second Opinion + Focus with Faeza + Deadline + QA with PJ Mir + Swal Yeh Hay
Note: You might want to look at the ratings that were conducted in August 2008 by going to this post. The first and only ratings for Urdu Columnists can be found here.
If you are related to any Media Group and would like to get comparative ratings of your programs, then please feel free to contact us at "media at pkpolitics dot com".
Ratings of All Programs:
Live with Talat: 7101
Off the Record: 6341
Capital Talk: 5651
Kal Tak: 5435
Meray Mutabiq: 4900
Bolta Pakistan: 4753
Islamabad Tonight: 2330
Siyasi Log: 1818
Second Opinion: 1627
Column Kaar: 1367
Jawab Deyh: 400
Kamran Khan: 162
Brass Tacks: 105
Choraha: 34
4 Man Show: 29
50 Minutes: 29
Lucman Show: 28
Hum Sab Umeed Say Hain: 27
Siyasat Aur Pakistan: 18
Focus With Faeza: 15
Control Line: 13
Crises Cell: 10
Left Right: 10
Pulse with Jasmine: 10
Imran Khan: 9
Meidi Sarkar - Rohi TV: 9
Nadia Khan: 9
News Eye - Dawn TV: 9
Newsweekly - Dawn TV: 9
Insight with Javed Malik: 8
Policy Matters with Naseem Zehra: 8
Sana Tariq: 8
Deadline: 7
Dr. Shaista Wahidi: 7
Siyasat Aur Hum: 7
Bachhay Man Ke Sachchay: 7
QA with Mir Jafer: 6
Siyah Safaid: 6
Haroon Rasheed: 4
Ankahi Samaa TV: 3
Sawal Yeh Hai: 3
Apnay Andaz Say: 2
Sajjad Mir News One: 2
Aftab Iqbal Duniya TV: 1
Barwaqt: 1
Dr. Danish: 1
Kiran and George: 1
Liarry King Live: 1
Mujahid Barilvi - CNBC: 1
PTV News: 1
QA with PJ Mir: 1
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N A D E E M M A L I K
Director Programme
AAJ TV
ISLAMABAD
00-92-321-5117511
nadeem.malik@hotmail.com
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