NEW DELHI: Pubcaster Doordarshan notched up record viewership of 38.3 million for the live telecast of India’s Republic Day celebrations, including the impressive parade by armed forces and civilian organisations, in the presence of special guests from 10 Asean countries, apart from bigwigs of the country’s political system.
Not only did DD record high audience data for the R-Day telecast shown simultaneously across its 22 terrestrial and satellite TV channels, but the gross figure, too, stood at 45.4 million. The 90-minute odd show, conceptualised to celebrate the Indian republic and its evolution through the years since 1950, was captured via 38 cameras this year.
According to DD’s parent Prasar Bharati Chairman A Surya Prakash, six cameras were deployed beyond central Delhi’s India Gate (the parade passes through some of the arterial roads from the India Gate roundabout) to capture a panoramic view for the telecast that was also beamed in HD format apart from the regular SD broadcast.
After BARC India released its weekly audience data last week highlighting the pubcaster’s R-Day broadcast, DD Director-General Supriya Sahu in a series of tweets said: “India trusts Doordarshan, the Public Service Broadcaster with events of national importance. Undeniable proof of people’s faith and confidence. Thanks to all our viewers. Million thanks dear viewers for watching and appreciating DD coverage of the Republic Day parade. It's your love and affection which drives our team to do their best. We are nothing without you.”
Republic Day telecasts not only helped DD viewership soar, but also shored up audience data of English and Hindi-language TV news channels as many private channels re-telecast DD-generated feeds from various locations of the official celebrations.
The impressive show by DD, which pulled out all the stops for the coverage and telecast of the R-Day 2018 celebrations beamed live on digital platforms, including YouTube, too, once again highlighting the pubcaster’s massive reach that continues to remain under-exploited and is reflected in the annual revenues generated by the national network.
Over the last 24 months, however, under chief executive Shashi S Vempati, and Sahu, DD has been attempting a series of initiatives to not only modernise itself, but also infuse fresh programming ideas for the network channels to up generation of revenue too, apart from living up to its objectives as a pubcaster.
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