Political coverage dominates TV time, crime takes a dip

New Delhi, Jan 22 (IANS) The coverage of political news dominated the TV channels last year while that of crime took a sharp dip, says a study.

The study conducted by the media lab of the Centre for Media Studies (CMS) says the Lok Sabha and state assembly elections came as a relief package for TV channels in the time of global recession last year and recorded highest news time.

The CMS study also shows that content trends on TV channels have not changed drastically over the past five years (2005-2009) with politics, sports and entertainment still dominating.

Though a decline in the news time of political coverage was recorded on the channels after 2005, it recorded the highest news time in 2009.

At the same time, CMS says, political coverage accounted for 20.36 percent of news time in 2009, as compared to 23.1 percent in 2005.

The focus on crime on the other hand has decreased, with coverage falling from 11.83 percent of news time in 2007 to merely 4.86 percent in 2009.

Entertainment coverage grew from 6.1 percent in 2005 to 16.15 percent in 2007 but gradually decreasing to 10.13 percent last year.

The findings are based on the study of prime time coverage of six national Hindi and English news channels -- DD News, Aaj Tak, NDTV 24X7, Zee News, CNN-IBN and Star News.