Aaj Tak, India's premier Hindi news channel, has once again secured the top spot in reach in the video news category, as per Nielsen’s Confluence solution covering 15-44 year olds from NCCS ABC households, from India's one lac+ towns, and are users of Android smartphone.

The analysis encompassed 32 Hindi TV news brands available on respective mobile applications, YouTube channels, and websites, providing a holistic view of audience engagement across multiple digital platforms. Viewers accessing news only on Aggregators or 3rd party apps such as social media feed are not covered unless the click opens the browser window outside the app to the news website.

The success of Aaj Tak can be attributed to its extensive reach, capturing the attention of audiences accessing the app, website, and YouTube channel on their smartphones. Nielsen’s solution, Confluence, based on which this report has been prepared, considers news domains of Hindi news channels, focusing on Aaj Tak's website (www.aajtak.in), accounting for both video and text content consumption on the platform, further solidifying Aaj Tak's dominance.

Sharing his thoughts on the findings, Salil Kumar, CEO of India Today Group Digital, expressed his pride in being ranked as the top Hindi news channel. He emphasized that this accomplishment is a testament to their unwavering dedication to providing their viewers with precise, real time, and accurate news. Salil Kumar extended his gratitude to the Indian audience for their loyalty and trust in Aaj Tak, making it their preferred source of news.

The Nielsen’s Confluence solution provides reach, behavior and engagement from its Android smartphone panel (covering content watched on YouTube and top VOD brands) including news watching behavior. By maintaining its leadership position, Aaj Tak has again demonstrated its dedication to providing its viewers with the highest quality news content.

A part of the India Today Group, Aaj Tak is India's premiere Hindi news channel, offering comprehensive and unbiased news coverage across various topics, including politics, business, entertainment, sports, and more. With a dedicated team of journalists and state-of-the-art news-gathering infrastructure, Aaj Tak has established itself as the most trusted news brand for millions of viewers. Aaj Tak is also the world’s first news channel to cross 50 million subscribers mark on YouTube.

Revenues to More than Double by 2025 to $4B According to IAB’s U.S. Podcast Advertising Report

Wide Variety of Advertisers and Diverse Voices Drive Growth

Podcasting continues to be one of the fastest growing digital channels, growing two times faster than digital advertising overall, according to IAB’s U.S. Podcast Advertising 2022 Revenue & 2023-2025 Growth Projections study, released on May 11 during IAB’s Podcast Upfront.

The seventh annual IAB U.S. Podcast Advertising Revenue study, prepared for IAB by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (“PwC”), quantifies annual podcast advertising revenues generated over the past year, analyzes revenue share by ad category and content genre, and forecasts future revenues through 2025.

Sports, Society & Culture, and Comedy are Now the Top Revenue-Generating Content Genres

Sports (15%), Society & Culture (14%), and Comedy (14%) are now the top revenue-generating content genres, taking the lead frome News and political opinion content (down from 19% to 12%).

“In-person sports, lifestyle events, and in-store shopping have come back in a big way, taking the lead from news which held the top revenue genre spot since 2018,” said Eric John, Vice President, Media Center, IAB. “Podcasting revenue naturally reflects that shift in consumer behavior and it will be interesting to watch how the balance changes going forward.”

Category Diversification and the Democratization of Podcast Advertising

Podcasting continues to evolve as an ideal medium for niche audiences, attracting advertisers in a wide range of categories including Advocacy, Education, Home Improvement, and beyond. These smaller categories, collectively, are driving 28% of all revenues.

“Both mass and niche advertisers like the audiences, targeting, and ROI along with the brand-safe and suitable environments that podcasting offers,” added John.

The low cost of podcast production has led to an ever-widening array of diverse voices providing authentic content that niche audiences crave.

“It’s clear now that the growth of podcasting was not just a temporary shift in behavior,” said David Cohen, CEO, IAB. “The diversity of voices and content — often targeting underserved audiences — is driving more listenership and more time spent, and that is attracting more advertisers.”

IAB’s Podcast Report Part II to Be Released Later this Year

During IAB’s Audio Leadership Gathering in the fall, IAB will release its 2023 Podcast Report Part II, that will examine the drivers, strategies, and tactics related to 2022 revenues as well as, for the first time ever, reveal insights from the current year’s (2023) performance.

Methodology

A quantitative, online survey was sent to leading podcast industry experts in February to understand 2022 podcast advertising revenues, revenues by industry category and content genre, as well as forecast revenue growth for the next 3 years. As in prior years, this coincided with a podcast advertising market-sizing to deliver an estimate of the market in the United States, inclusive of non-survey participating companies.

The gamification of news keeps proving successful for news media websites. Norkon’s Fantasy Funds for example, allowed reputable financial news media to engage up to 24k players, increasing significantly readers and subscribers. Also WAN-IFRA is making its contribution to playing with news, thanks to the project NewsArcade.

The gamification of news keeps proving successful for news media websites. Norkon’s Fantasy Funds for example, allowed reputable financial news media to engage up to 24k players, increasing significantly readers and subscribers. Also WAN-IFRA is making its contribution to playing with news, thanks to the project NewsArcade.

“Gamification occurs when a task or topic is transformed into a … gamelike activity to encourage interaction and participation, … and to break down complex subjects to make them more understandable or digestible”. For financial news media the challenge is to reach new and younger audiences by bridging the financial literacy gap. An experience like Fantasy Funds, based on real-world stock market data and played alongside current financial news, allows users to gain risk-free portfolio management experience, better understand financial information, and ultimately develop the confidence necessary to invest in the real world.

The key, as Mathias Douchet, Director of Product at The Telegraph, put it, is that there is overwhelming financial information online, but the only real way to learn how to trade is by doing it. With the gamified approach players can try their hand, while at the same time getting accustomed to the specialist content provided alongside the game by the news media. The increase in literacy results in stickiness for the news media website, and ultimately new readers and subscribers.

Fantasy Funds drew the attention of WAN-IFRA a few years back: it has been featured in the Newsroom Summit in 2021, and again last month at Digital Media Europe, where Norway’s leading business newspaper Dagens Naeringsliv presented their impressive results with the game experience.

Attracting and retaining the attention of younger audiences is a challenge for all of the news media industry, and gamification is one of the most promising answers. According to statistics from February 2023, the global gamification market is valued at almost 12 billion USD, with 70% of the Global 2000 companies using game-based learning to improve employee engagement, productivity, and profitability. The industry is predicted to grow at an annual rate of 27.4% over the next several years; 14% of that growth will be in education.

Indeed, more and more news publishers are experimenting with serious games, and are likely to do so increasingly in the future. For all these reasons, WAN-IFRA started a few months back work in a consortium of publishers that are developing a serious game thanks to EU financing, with the objective to improve news literacy and create for the news media industry new connections with distant potential audiences.

The game will allow players to experience the journalism process with current news stories, and real sources, facts and photos. The user will thus be empowered to create an interactive news story, gain insight in journalism and better understand the responsibilities involved.

News publishers will be provided with a tool that will be easy to adapt to their own websites also in the presence of paywalls, and that will be devised to be easy to integrate in the workflow of their newsrooms. To make sure of this, the consortium produced a thorough report on user requirements which includes the point of view of several journalists and publishers, as well as findings on GenZ’s habits in consuming news.

Testing of the prototype will start in June through experiments with the different target audiences, and the first phase of proper piloting is expected for the coming fall.

We are releasing the 2022 U.S. YouTube Impact Report, highlighting key findings and showcasing individual creator stories.

What do a confectioner, psychologist, and children’s songwriter all have in common? They’re all examples of the types of YouTube creators making their mark on American life. In fact, according to a new report by Oxford Economics on the state of the U.S. creator economy, YouTube’s creative ecosystem is having a big impact on America’s economy, society and culture. These creative entrepreneurs are building businesses, hiring employees and contributing to their communities while making videos for the billions of people who turn to YouTube every month for entertaining, educational and enriching content.

Oxford Economics estimates that, in 2022, YouTube’s creative ecosystem contributed over $35 billion to the U.S. GDP and supported more than 390K full-time equivalent U.S. jobs. The report also shows that YouTube is an important source of educational content for kids and helpful information for all.

Hercules Candy is just one of the many businesses that have seen the benefits of YouTube. First opened in 1910 by Robert Adrianos and his two brothers, the business fell on hard times and closed its store doors in 1972. Robert’s grandson, Steve, reopened the business in 1977 and started making and selling candy out of his home, where he and his family would continue to run the business for the next 40 years. In 2017, the Andrianos family launched the Hercules Candy YouTube channel, which offered viewers a behind the scenes look at how treats like peanut butter filled ribbon candy were made. They quickly attracted a following of sweet-toothed subscribers and saw the demand for their products take off. The following year, the Andrianos were finally able to open a storefront, purchase new equipment and hire additional staff.

Beyond their economic contribution, U.S. creators are also shaping our society. Oxford Economics found that 85% of parents who use YouTube agree that YouTube provides quality content for their children's learning and entertainment. Additionally, 86% of teachers who use YouTube report that they have used YouTube content in their lessons and assignments.

One example of creators helping parents and kids is Dr. Javoris Hollinsworth and his family. Dr. Hollinsworth started Gracie’s Corner in 2020 after noticing a lack of diverse characters in the kids programming his eight year old daughter, Graceyn, was watching. At the time, he was a full-time chemistry professor at a university in Houston. He wrote and recorded songs with Graceyn in his spare time from a makeshift studio he built in his home, paying animators out of pocket to bring the channel’s characters to life. The channel steadily built a following, and in 2022, he quit his job as a professor to fully devote himself to the mission of creating educational content for kids of diverse backgrounds. He has since hired a team to continue growing the brand, on and off YouTube. In 2023, Gracie’s Corner was nominated for both a Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Award and an NAACP Image Award.

Many creators also help broaden people’s perspective on important topics like mental health. Dr. Tracey Marks–a psychiatrist in Atlanta, GA who has treated thousands of patients over a 22 year career–uses YouTube to address the stigmas associated with mental health disorders and treatment. She was inspired to start her channel after noticing how difficult it was for her to find trusted resources that provide nuanced information about mental health conditions in a way that was easy to understand. On her channel, Dr. Marks, posts informative and engaging videos on topics like anxiety, depression, stress management and more. Her videos have been viewed millions of times. And this type of mental health information that can be particularly helpful for communities where access to such resources is limited. YouTube had over 1.4B views on mental health videos in the United States in 2021 alone.

This Oxford Economic report reinforces what I see every day: that creators are having a real and positive impact on American life.

Written By Tara Walpert Levy, Vice President, Americas, YouTube

The Golden Globes®, Hollywood’s premier global entertainment award, is sponsoring The Hollywood Reporter’s second annual “Raising Our Voices: Setting Hollywood’s Inclusion Agenda” lunch, taking place at the Wallis Annenberg GenSpace .

“Raising Our Voices” brings together the industry’s most influential and inspiring executives, storytellers and thought leaders for a groundbreaking series of discussions on the state and future of Hollywood's diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) movement.

“We are thrilled to be part of Raising Our Voices and lend our own experiences in supporting the growth of diversity within Hollywood,” said Helen Hoehne, President of the Golden Globes. “Showcasing these important topics of diversity helps continue to shine a light on the ongoing need to support the important work of inclusion and access.”

Keynote speaker for this year’s event is screenwriter, television producer, filmmaker and actor Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit, Thor: Love and Thunder). The event also recognizes two “2023

Trailblazer” honorees: actor, director and producer Eva Longoria (Flamin’ Hot, Eva Longoria:Searching for Mexico); and actor/producer Niecy Nash-Betts (The Rookie: Feds, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story). Each was feted for their commitment to telling stories that place diversity, equity and inclusion at the center of their artform.

This year’s “Raising Our Voices” event features exclusive programming and panels centered on important DEI themes, including:

· “Inside Hollywood’s Shifting Power Structures"

· "The State of Inclusion in Storytelling”

Neil Phillips, Chief Diversity Officer for the Golden Globes, is participating on one of the panels and will speak on the progress and transformation the organization has undergone in becoming one of Hollywood’s most diverse awards bodies.