MUMBAI: India’s general election threw up some surprising results after a hotly contest campaign. While there was a general consensus about Bharatiya Janata Party emerging as the single largest party, the sheer scale of its win surprised even some of the party’s loyal supporters. The fascinating festival of democracy kept the Indian audiences glued right through the election season.
The biggest beneficiary of that was the Hindi news genre which witnessed growth across TG cuts. India Today Group’s flagship Hindi news channel Aaj Tak won the viewership sweepstakes rather handsomely, topping all the charts during the season. Other major broadcasters that fared extremely well were ABP News and India TV.
In terms of average daily impressions, Aaj Tak and India TV dominated across most age groups.
The Hindi news genre also saw growth across zones. The overall growth of the category was 381 per cent during the period.
Three news channels made it to the top 10 channel list across genres on Counting Day. Aaj Tak stood first in rankings with ABP News and India TV grabbing the second and third slots respectively.
Hindi news also witnessed growth across and time bands with Aaj Tak being the big gainer. While Republic Bharat in rural as well as during non-prime time, India TV was strong in urban areas and during prime-time slot.
During the telecast of all the marquee events like PM Modi’s Varanasi road show, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s boat yatra and manifesto launches, Aaj Tak and India TV were ahead of their competition retaining the first and second positions respectively on most occasions.
Now that the dust has settled down on the Indian election, we can say with certainty that there were two clear winners – PM Modi and India’s Hindi news channels.
Interestingly, the English news category grew by 486 per cent during the election season in megacities.
During election counting week English News genre saw more than 130% growth in megacities with India Today, Republic and Times Now emerging as the top three news channels in the country.
On Counting Day, English News channels beat English GECs, movies and music with India Today, Times and Republic rounding off the top three in the megacities.
