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 program even if it is at the cost of popularity of program. Direct phone calls was and is still a distinct feature of the program, but recently, the frequency of calls has been reduced that is another factor in the declining popularity of this program. 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 programs 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 program 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 program to cover weekends (Saturday and Sunday) when not many programs 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 program.
________________________________________________________
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
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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One of the most concise & interesting show is Aaj Kamran Khan Kay Saath rest of others are as followed Capital Talk, Kal Tak, Live with Talat, Off the Record & Bolta Pakistan. Why Kamran Khan is No.1 because he knows where is the root of cause e.g. Ms. Peterson secret meetings with Zardari thereafter, American Generals’ loitering, which is real caused of entire political disturbance in Pakistan.
@Adnan Arshad Mansoori,
I also believe Kamran Khan can do better. The only thing he would have to do is to stop taking Lifafas.
Quite interesting to see what people are watching and what they consider to be good presentation. It seems that people are voting for a combination of analytics and bashing. Since “Live with Talat” is good at both it gets the top rating or so it seems. “Off the Record” which is only good at bashing and lacks serious analytics made its way to the second position because of its strong bashing. However, all the programs are now setting into boredom, lethargy and beating the bush. The graph of improvement of the programs has stopped growing. We need to add more diversity and instead of beating the bush we should diversify the issues we address e.g. what is the energy crisis all about, environmental issues (which has the potential for seriously degrading productivity in Pakistan), food security, what is Balochistan thinking, what is interior Sindh thinking, why the disparity between southern and northern Punjab, what is happening in Central Asia, why Iran is playing a negative role against Pakistan since its revolution, which muslim countries were directly involved in terrorism in Pakistan and why (Iran, Syria, Libya, Iraq), what is Russia thinking and doing, state of education in Pakistan both formal and informal, how can technical and vocational education help lift Pakistan’s economy, problems of fishermen and fishery sector in Pakistan, Pakistan’s mineral policy, rise of extremism, fanaticism, role of security establishment and military in India, role or religious education in Pakistan and how can it be better integrated in the larger fabric of the society, the demise of libraries and reading culture in Pakistan, suffocation in transportation sector in Pakistan, improving IT infrastructure, reforming civil governance, improving internal security, integrating northern areas with Pakistan, long term analysis of FATA’s current administrative status on Pakistan etc etc. There are so many issues which any of these programs never touches. Serious analytical approach is missing from all the programs and more focus is on photo oppurtunities and “mirich masalha”. Get good thinkers, philosophers, educationists, engineers, scientists, doctors, writers, historians on your programs to educate the public in the larger context. No program was done by any of these shows on Prof. Ahmad Hassan Dani on his sad departure from us. People are getting fed up of strong insistence of these programs on the same faces, same petty talks, same useless rambling and same old stories. Do something new and do something better and keep moving forward.
I know PJ mir himself gave his show 1 vote but who the F*** voted for PTV news ? zardari?
Thanks Rasheed.
Live with Talat is really the best
nice host with logical questions and soft spoken
not like capital talk, Masala News++
only 1000 respondents(most of them internet users and not common people) cannot decide the popularity of a show.pkpolitics is biased towards Hamid Mir.Fact is that recently pkpolitics conducted a survey of popular columnists and asked ratings from the viewers.10 names were suggested to viewers and name of Hamid Mir was missing.Why?He got awards of best columns even long before Geo.What is the criteria of pkpolitics.Yes there is one problem with Hamid Mir.He does not respond our emails,does not attend phone calls of his fans and looks arrogant but no doubt he is one of the most popular journalists in the country.If his show is number three then why Capital Talk is getting more business than Talat Hussain and Kashif Abbasi?
@freemason
I agree with most of the things you said…
QA with Mir Jafer what the hell is that?
@admin
Will you please explain that why you have removed capital talk of 29th Jan from the main page.According to your survey capital talk is third most popular show but you have showed your biase by removing it from the main page and the other shows of the 29th are still present on main page.Ba fair Ghulam Mustafa sahib.
gasp! naseem zehra with 8 votes?? whats wrong with you people.
Thanks for all the work compiling the results.
I think the gainers/losers graph is the most telling as to the makeup of the ‘audience’ (and therefore ‘voters’) of PkPolitics.
I would say the visitor makeup is in flux and PKPolitics stands to become PKTrollics if it doesn’t do something about identity enforcement (through one way mechanisms) in a short time frame.)
IP ==> Unique cube shape (seem wordpress plugins) will help identify users even if they change identities.
It is becoming clear that the popular Pakistani politics and discussion sites are coming under increasingly coordinated attacks by people who are into things like “immaculate deceptions etcetera” and therefore having an identity cube would be a deterrent against such activities (or at least raise the stakes for comment spammers … and I don’t mean just the viagara type spam by that…)
@Munir Solangi,
It is still on the main page. It was the first program posted on the site yesterday therefore got pushed to the top of the right column as more than 5 programs were added after that.
And secondly, Ghulam Mustafa does not post the programs on the website.
Admin
“And secondly, Ghulam Mustafa does not post the programs on the website.”
You are so funny
@Munir Solangi
I think Admin is by large very fair on his website.
@munir sulangi
i myself is big fan of hamid mir but i believe that admin of pk politics is by & larg very unbiased and fair, so stop accusing him. He is doing wonderful job so shut up
Without going into hard raking, we can see the top 4 or 5 shows which precipitated themselves from others. These are the hosts who are, in general, very respected for their integrity to journalism, by viewers.
I don’t believe Kamran Khan was in the listing so that’s why his raking is so low. He is obviously much much better than 400.
I am sure if Dr. Shahid Masood had not experimented with PTV, he would had been up on top. The guys lost a lot of respect.
Finally, another eye-opener for PPP. The top rank anchors are the ones who usually take PPP ministers on.
i like this result but even that i rate Kashif Abbasi on top. even Talat is best but i dont know why i like KASHIF …..WELLDONE PAKPOLITICS
@Ma
“..No objectivity in it.”
Can you please enlighten us, what exactly you mean by objectivity?
Good one… I believe bolta pakistan would soon stop talking if NJ keeps on siding with zardari…. i generally dont watch this program any more.. now it seems more like beating about the bush.. used to be my most fav program once… but its really rubbish now
It seems that Hamid Mir (of Capital Talk) has gotten the yeast of Zardari. No wonder Pee Pee Pee soaked mice are upset form the result of this survey. Free suggestion to Ziyalas; send some bait to pkpolitics.com also.
how a survey can be ‘true’ or ‘representative’ when its has taken a sample of less than 0.01% of the total population.
its simple!
@Ma,
Can you please tell everyone about the sample size used in Gallup or IRI type surveys?
Thanks
@ Ma
You are incredibly dumb person Ma. Thats what surveys are about. We are not holding elections they are surveys you thick head!
IP address monitoring wont solve the problem of the site becoming PkTrolics, first of all that would be a full time job secondly IP addresses are not a fixed standard to id the visitors. use web 2.0 methods like adding a voting system on comments. try some wordpress plugins like trollr or comment karma.
http://e.leven.com.ar/trollr/
http://www.cyber-knowledge.net/blog/2006/10/15/wordpress-plugin-rate-your-comments-comment-karma/
It shouldnt be too hard adding these to pkpolitics maybe a 1 hour job and will improve the site a lot
@ soolangi aka hamid mir
Why cant you take critique? there is always space for improvement.
If talat start doing crap he will be brought to number 10 space simple.
It not geo monoply.
How many article do you write 3-4 months, does yhat qualify as professional writer
Its interesting.
Everyone fighting for one’s own choice of anchors. PK POLITICS rocks.
ali abbass
It is not about favourite, it is about objectivity, neutrality and ubbiased approach.
Who soever does that is favourite, names does not matter.
No one will praise nazir hanji, asad ghalib who are bikao maal.
Ideological bais is not an issue, obviously every one has a point of view.
No problem with nusrat javed being liberal , left kikeness, no problem with irfan siddique being conservative , right wing.
People like zaid hamid , ahmad qureshi, luckman jasmen whoever sucks, that speaks in there ratings
Talat’s latest article
so true
http://express.com.pk/epaper/PoPupwindow.aspx?newsID=1100563718&Issue=NP_LHE&Date=20090131
is he impartial?
blackhawk sahib,
do you think that Dr.Shahid Masood is more popular than Bolta Pakistan.In our rural Sindh bolta pakistan is more popular than any other program because Sindhis hate Zardari.
“Sindhi’s hate Zardari.”
whats the evidence of this statement.
so atlast talat sir again proved himself m smellin somthing burning here LOLLLLZz
anywayz someone tensed on sample size shud knw tht all surveys are held taking 1000 or so sample size.
I knw coz i myself is a student of statistics.
Talat Hussain Always THE BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Munir Talangi aka Hamid Mir
Remember wat u had said for Dr. Shahid after he left GEO??
http://pkpolitics.com/2008/07/07/hamid-mir-in-nadia-khan-show-2/
Now u r eating ur own sh!t and if u have any shame left , then u shud have left GEO the day Dr. Shahid joined GEO again.
U r just a low level, low IQ hypocrate. In Punjabi wat is said ‘ tumhara phuddoo laga hooa hay’.
and for u morals, values, thics, rules, principals are not important, u only care for ur job……right?
Rasheed & Others: Upon my kind request just take notice with utter attention thereafter analyze, how far Kamran Khan is ahead as compare to others, the most appealing object of KK i.e. he talks only on utmost required topics in limited time period which may turn the table of Pakistan, South Asia or global politics.
As far this blame of Lifafa this hasn’t been proofed as yet to-date, yes you may say he/KK never allows before him that anyone even President Zardari, PM Gillani, FM Shah, Khurshid Shah, Qaira & many others when they start to talk to much & try to go in detail even he/KK may cut the line because as & when KK realizes he’s received at his end the most OBJECTIVE-able point he may say Bahut Bahut Shukria in other words (Tum hoongay Wazir yah Bearucrate majahay Tum nay woh Baat Batladi Jo nahi batalni chaihay thi.)
Believe me this sort of ability I haven’t seen in any anchor at some extent you may say so might have in Kashif Abbasi but some time he over reacts which is seem odd.
Admin, I have missed lots Siyasi Log. You have not shown many program in January
Congratulations to both Talat Hussain and Kashif Abbasi and of course to pkpolitics for conducting this survey.
@Munir Solangi
“he is one of the most popular journalists in the country.If his show is number three then why Capital Talk is getting more business than Talat Hussain and Kashif Abbasi?”
I think you did not get “We conducted a survey earlier this month (January 2009) through our visitors“. Also, I am sure PTV News is watched by more people and is popular in the general population but that does not mean it will get high ratings here. And I doubt Talat or Kashif will ever get more business than Hamid Mir because — dare I say — they are smarter? They certainly will have to dumb it down a lot to reach that level of popularity but I am glad they haven’t…
“you have showed your biase by removing it from the main page”
Of course now you know you were not thinking properly and it is you who showed your bias by this claim.
“do you think that Dr.Shahid Masood is more popular than Bolta Pakistan.In our rural Sindh bolta pakistan is more popular than any other program because Sindhis hate Zardari.”
I really don’t know what you are trying to say here. And how you draw the conclusion “Sindhis hate Zardari” from “In our rural Sindh bolta pakistan is more popular” certainly beats me.
Not just we (participants or regular visitors of this site) but ppl related to media also take a serious notice of all survey’ results which are hold on this site. As Rauf Kalasra has mentioned and expressed gratefulness to gain fifth position by the public in the Best Urdu columnist survey which was held by a famous website. He wrote that I received this news from a friend who called me for congratulations…
As earlier, Business Recorder (Daily Business Newspaper) advertised that AAJ TV got the best and most popular TV channel position according a survey held on pkpolitics .com… they used this site reference in advertisement.
We should respect and rely on these results (reflection of our opinion) congratulations to the Winners and administrator also…….
but one thing… since kashif abbasi got 2nd position in this survey .. He is doing nothing in his shows.. why?????????
Munir Solangi
I feel sorry to hear that ur favorite anchorperson does not receive phone call or never reply e-mails…sent by u and other fans… anyways, one thing I would like to mention here that this is not a criteria to judge a professional on his/her personal looks or behavior…It’s more than related to work and professional integrity which counts definitely in all matters. No matter he/he replies a phone call or e-mail or not… (Btw who do it?)
I m sure that all voters who participated in this survey, definitely they have cast their vote keeping in view the professionalism of candidates… not personal affair… or looks…
Moreover, how do you suppose that HM looks arrogant? I don’t think… Believe me that HM does not looks arrogant… he has a pleasant personality.. And listen! Looks does not matter in this profession… Talat Hussain looks more arrogant (hard feature personality) but u see results? Why ppl like him? Just because of his professional integrity and professionalism. Be happy!!!
Solangi:
plz tell me about the person (tv journalist/anchorperson) who replies the mails.. I would like to address him.
Kashif abbasi has let us down by saying 270aaa is part of constitution.
How stupid of him.
soolangi aka hamid mir you can learn interviewing skills from talat hussain.
See todays live with talt interview with shabaz shareef. See how a anchor should be unbiased and same time ask pinching question.
There is no shame in learning. We all learn.
Bolta pakistan has been doing pathetic work since few months now.
Nadeem maliks islamabad tonight is much better and balanced program, without any bias .
Kashif because of his tendency to invite TULLI in every third program and justifying 270 aaa IS doing badly.
I must say kamran khan show format is good and many topics are covered.
Host has his bias and problems
@ Muhamamd Usman
Kashif did not justify 270AAA or considered it as part of constitution.
He just raised this important issue to EXPOSE some ones beloved PPP (Londi of establishment) who believe that 270AAA IS part of constitution.
Similialry, another so called progressive party (who recently changed their master from russians to US) also accepted that 270AAA is part of constitution.
The most visible decline is in Bolta Pakistan’s popularity, and this is because Nusrat Javed is a PPP chamcha.
Either they should replace Nusrat by someone else or have some surgery on him to remove the jiala disease. Otherwise the show will go down further.
Jiala dieses is dangerous…Blindness is an integral part of this …we understand that everybody has right to like any party and have an affiliation with party but in profession he/she should be impartial at least seems as impartial /unbiased or fair. As journalist NJ could not over come Party Love which is basic cause of losing viewer ship in ratings….
It is great to see Live With Talat on top of the list of popular programs. It is testament to the rising popularity of Talat Hussain and also to his impeccable analysis and honest reporting of the true facts backed up by thorough research and investigation.
Please do take the time to visit and join Talat Hussain’s fanpage on Facebook titled as ‘Syed Talat Hussain’ it can also be accessed through this link:-
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Syed-Talat-Hussain/49947567280?ref=ts
@ Munir Solangi
Munir sahab I really wonder how you came up with the statement that evryone in rural Sindh hates Zardari!! They would never have voted him in in the first place if that was the case! Have you conducted your own survey in this regard by the way?
Secondly, if Bolta Pakistan is liked more than any other program in rural Sindh for the very same reason mentioned above, then all these anchors like Kashid Abbasi, Talat Hussain and recently even Dr. Shahid Masood have been increasingly critcizing Zardari and the government, so why are they not popular then?
I think this is a misconception of yours because one of the hosts of Bolta Chalta Phirta Pakistan Nusrat Javed is famously known to be and is self-avowedly Pro-PPP and Zardari!
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