BSF Motor Cycle team contingent at the 2018 Republic Day Parade (Ajay Aggarwal/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)Numbers released by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) have thrown up an interesting statistic this year. On 26 Janaury this year, the number of people watching the Republic Day Parade hit 38 million viewers, up from last year’s figure of 22.2 million viewers.
Aired on 20 channels of the state-owned Doordarshan Network, the overall viewership for the network jumped up from 5.6 million impressions in 2017 to 7.4 million – an increase of 33 per cent – between 9 AM and 12 PM. An impression refers to the number of individuals in a thousand within a target audience who viewed an event that is averaged across minutes.
A lot of effort went into the Republic Day coverage this time. We were prepared in advance especially on the digital front. The parade has so far been watched by more than 2.5 million people online.Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati
News channels – sourcing the Republic Day feed from Doordarshan – too saw an increase in their viewership. Hindi channels saw their viewership go from 7.9 million impressions to 9.2 million while English channels registered 620,000 impressions over last year’s 310,000.
However, the spike in viewership can also be attributed to changes in how BARC measures audience viewership. In March 2017, it updated its viewership, adding more viewers taking the number from 154 million in 2013 to 183 million.
An Appeal...
Dear Reader,
As you are no doubt aware, Swarajya is a media product that is directly dependent on support from its readers in the form of subscriptions. We do not have the muscle and backing of a large media conglomerate nor are we playing for the large advertisement sweep-stake.
Our business model is you and your subscription. And in challenging times like these, we need your support now more than ever.
We deliver over 10 - 15 high quality articles with expert insights and views. From 7AM in the morning to 10PM late night we operate to ensure you, the reader, get to see what is just right.
Becoming a Patron or a subscriber for as little as Rs 1200/year is the best way you can support our efforts.