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Mumbai Terror: News channels viewership jumps

As Mumbai was hit by the devstating terrorist attacks last week, news channels in India saw a huge jump in their ratings as viewers tuned into obtain the latest.

Some channels went commercial-free and covered up to the minute news as it was unfolding for over 60-hours non-stop.

According to a report on IndianTelevision, Hindi news channels occupied 22.4 per cent of the entire TV viewing share for the four days (26th to 29th November) of terror coverage, the highest the genre has ever recorded in Indian television. Hindi general entertainment channels, which enjoy maximum TV viewing, had a share of 19.5 per cent while Hindi movie channels took away a 15.1 per cent share, as per Tam data (C&S, 4+, HSM).

Aaj Tak and ZEE News were the biggest gainers. Aaj Tak increased its market share by 6 per cent totalling to 23 per cent for the week ended 29th November. The next big gainer in the Hindi news genre is ZEE News, with a 3 per cent rise to 11 per cent.

STAR News had a 16 per cent market share, a gain of 1 per cent.

In the English news genre, NDTV 24X7, which has gained 5 per cent, has captured the highest market share for the week with 30 per cent (C&S, 15+, All India). Times Now also gained 5 per cent to garner a share of 28 per cent.

In the UK, Aaj Tak, STAR News, NDTV 24×7, Geo News, ARY One World, Sky News switched to rolling breaking news.

ZEE TV brought viewers updates on the breaking news in its regular nightly news at 18:3 with updates from ZEE News hourly. BBC News too informed viewers about developments in updates throughout the night.