DD National sees major surge in the ratings as BARC releases rural data

The public broadcaster, Doordarshan has emerged as the most watched channel in terms of time spent per viewer and has left behind the top touted GEC’s.

DD National, the flagship channel of the network, registered an Average Time Spent of 51 Min per viewer, highest among Hindi GEC’s, in the week 41 as per BARC ratings. This indicates that after tuning to the channel, viewers preferred to continuously watch the channel for a longer duration of time rather than frequently switching the channels, as compared to other GEC’s.

The channel also witnessed a significant rise in ratings and moved upto the 7th position as per BARC data in Hindi Speaking Markets, NCCS All, which comprised of All India (U+R) in the week 41. According to the data, the channel’s Gross viewership in lakhs (GVL) rose from 479.9 lakhs in week 40 to a massive 4040.5 lakhs in week 41.

This monumental development comes in as BARC released the much awaited All India data, which includes rural India, for the very first time. Of the total 153.5 million TV households, representing All India and all modes of signal, 77.5 million are urban TV households and 76 million are rural TV households.

The spurt in channel's viewership can also be attributed to the channel’s current strategy of providing the viewers with fresh content, supplemented by a robust publicity campaign; thus creating an active awareness of the changing face of Doordarshan.