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The Broadcast Audience Research Council on Thursday released a report on TV viewership of Indians and analysed what people watched the most on their television. Turns out the historic groundbreaking ceremony for a new Ram temple in Ayodhya earlier this month was aired on 198 channels and watched by 163 million people.
Secondly, the sensational coverage on Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s alleged suicide has been one of the biggest watched subjects, dominating Indian news channels’ airtime.
The Ayodhya event on August 5 had viewing minutes of 7.3 billion, topping all the recent events where Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke, the industry body said. Modi’s address to the Nation on Independence Day had the highest viewing by minutes at 4.64 billion, while the fifth address during the COVID-19 pandemic on May 12 had 4.25 billion viewing minutes, it added.
Shift after the pandemic
With people sending more time at home and becoming more aware of issues around them, more people are watching News than before. Before the pandemic, only 41 per cent of general entertainment channels (GECs) audiences were watching the news, which has now gone up to 49 per cent.
Meanwhile, for three of the last four weeks, the Rajput suicide issue has been the top story on news channels, while it was Ayodhya event in the fourth week.
Rajput suicide case has pulled smartphone users also check up on the news more, with a high of 48 per cent being achieved in the week when the death was reported, marketer AC Nielsen said, citing data from 12,000 users.
From an overall TV perspective, viewing rose marginally to 1.08 trillion minutes for the week to August 21 as TV started broadcasting more of fresh content, as against 1.07 trillion in the previous week, but was lower than the lockdown peak of 1.266 trillion in April, BARC said.
Lulla said the onset of the Indian Premier League later this year will help the sagging numbers of the sports segment as well. Meanwhile, Nielsen said that despite the Chinese apps ban, 29 per cent of people – who have the app on their phone – continued to click on the icon at least once a week from a level of 76 per cent when the bans were announced.
(With PTI inputs)
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