he deluge in Mumbai was about rain, right? Right. For STAR News, however, the deluge also turned out to be one of viewers. So engrossing was its coverage of the Mumbai floods that its share among all the Hindi new channels shot up dramatically. The channel, promoted jointly by ABP Pvt Ltd and News Corp, immediately issued an ad to say that, according to TAM, it had caught up with perennial No 1, Aaj Tak from the India Today group with a 25 per cent channel share among viewers in six metros.

Says Sandeep Tarkas, chief executive officer Media Direction, "Their coverage of the Mumbai floods seems to have done them a lot of good. But sustaining that level is going to be a tough task." It is one thing to be successful for a week but it is an entirely different thing to hang on there for a long time as Aaj Tak has managed.... more