PM Modi economic stimulus announcement records highest views among all five addresses on COVID-19

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his May 12 address announced a Rs 20 lakh crore economic stimulus to tackle the impact of coronavirus-led lockdown.

During his address, PM Modi has also mentioned that "lockdown 4" will come in with a new set of rules.

This address was telecast on 197 channels and was viewed by 193 million people.

The fifth address by PM Modi on COVID-19 recorded maximum viewing minutes at 4,268 million minutes, according to data shared by BARC on May 14.

Amid all the addresses on COVID-19 since March 19, the fifth address has recorded the highest views.

The other addresses including the Janta Curfew message, the first lockdown announcement, the video message on COVID-19 and the lockdown 2.0 announcement registered 1275.3 million, 3862.9 million, 1024.5 million, and 3922.4 million viewing minutes respectively.

However, when it comes to viewership, the lockdown 2.0 announcement with 203 million viewers surpasses the fifth address that was viewed by 193 million people.

The viewership for all the PM’s addresses on coronavirus shows that majority of people tuned into television channels to listen to what Modi had to say.

While viewership for TV had been growing in March and April, it looks like the fatigue level has started to set in as TV viewership in week-17 (week starting April 25) and week-18 (week starting May 2) has started to slow down.

Due to no original programming, the viewership during prime time has gone down by seven percent as compared to pre-COVID level.

Decline of prime time viewership versus pre-COVID levels is more pronounced in southern markets which is 16 percent lower. While the impact is less in Hindi Speaking Market, yet the viewership is down by two percent as compared to pre-COVID levels again due to no new content.

Hindi GECs (General Entertainment Channels) are seeing more impact on consumption as compared to other genres like news and movies which have fresher content to offer as against Hindi GECs.

However, TV viewership in red zones has witnessed lesser decline.