HT, Fever FM, Zee lead all media brands in Brand Trust Report 2016

The sixth edition of the Brand Trust Report (BTR) brought out by TRA (formerly Trust Research Advisory) ranks Hindustan Times as the most trusted media brand across all media categories in India with a BTR rank of 112. Fever FM stands second, which has entered the BTR rankings with a rank of 156 this year, followed by Zee at No 3 with a BTR rank of 176.

Hindustan Times, the flagship publication of HT Media, leads the Media - Print category in Newspapers (English). Close rival The Times of India follows with a BTR ranking of 205 in 2016. Zee Media’s English daily DNA is placed third in this category with a BTR rank of 240.

Fever FM has been rated the most trusted brand in the Media - FM radio category in India. Big FM follows with a BTR rank of 370 in 2016. Radio Mirchi is placed third in this category with a BTR rank of 533 this year.

The report ranks Zee as the most trusted brand in the Media - TV category, followed by Star Gold and Zee News.

Zee is also ranked as the most trusted brand in the Television - Hindi GEC category. Star Gold is ranked second in this category, entering the list for the first time with a BTR rank of 224. The flagship channel from the Star India stable, Star Plus, is placed third with a BTR rank of 328 this year.

In the Television - Hindi News category, Zee News is the most trusted brand, according to the report. The channel has garnered a BTR ranking of 226 in 2016. Aaj Tak is placed second in this category with a BTR rank of 238 this year, while ABP News is ranked third with a BTR rank of 436.

In the Television - English News category, there is only one entry – BBC, which has secured a BTR rank of 538 in 2016.

Samsung Mobiles was ranked the most trusted brand in the personal gadgets category, while Sony topped the list in the durables category. Google was ranked the top Internet brand. The report ranks Amitabh Bachchan as the country’s most trusted personality brand. WhatsApp, Amazon and PayPal also topped their respective categories.

The Brand Trust Report, India Study, is a comparison of the trust held in brands. TRA says that BTR-2016, the sixth in its series, is the result of a comprehensive primary research conducted on the proprietary 61-Attribute Trust Matrix of TRA. This year’s study involved 18,000 hours of fieldwork covering 2,500 consumer-influencers across 16 cities in India and generated 6 million datapoints and 20,000 unique brands from which the top 1000 brands have been listed in this year’s report. The 200 page, hardbound report is available for Rs 14,000.