MUMBAI: It was quite evident from the viewership trends of the past few high-decibel events like the IPL and general polls, that there is going to be a huge influx of native digital population on various streaming sites to keep a tab on the live election verdict on 23 May. All of the big and small online organisations were online throughout the day with timely updates on the counting process yesterday, and are still continuing to do so as the electoral mathematics progresses.
While the public broadcaster of the country, Doordarshan (DD), has been lagging behind other TV channels in terms of viewership for quite a few years, it seems like it has been reviving its lost sheen now with the help of digital.
As tweeted by Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar, the YouTube channel of Doordarshan recorded more than 60 million views on the live streaming of electoral counting.
A whoppping 60 Million views and counting for the @DDNewsLive @DDIndiaLive Live Stream of Election Results that was featured by Google India on YouTube all day yesterday. To put this in perspective highest viewership videos of @ddnational of Republic Day Parade are few million. https://t.co/uRIFGb7j0a
— Shashi Shekhar (@shashidigital) May 24, 2019
Shashi had earlier tweeted how DD’s regional YouTube channels saw a surge in viewership during the polls with DD News Guwahati recording a 100 per cent increase in daily viewership, while for Maharashtra it was 400 per cent, on the day of voting in the state.
Best performing digitally among the regional news teams was the Marathi News by @ddsahyadrinews on YouTube which saw a dramatic surge in audience interest through the election phases in Maharashtra https://t.co/CIaAk3RJsQ pic.twitter.com/q3IlrvN7vc
— Shashi Shekhar (@shashidigital) May 18, 2019
Growing digital audiences for news content in Northeastern languages was evident from the traffic surges witnessed by assamese news by @ddnews_guwahati on YouTube https://t.co/jLmRs2VpHM pic.twitter.com/y3WSWK3e9d
— Shashi Shekhar (@shashidigital) May 18, 2019
As per recently released IRS readership data for Q1 of 2019, 50 per cent of active internet users in India come from rural India, who form a substantial number of DD’s viewership on TV as well.
