When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressed the editors of television news channels on February 16, something that television viewers knew of in advance, viewership of news channels went up noticeably.
While the market share of the Hindi news channels increased by a smaller 16.2% during the 10.30 am-12.30 pm interaction that was broadcast live, English news channels saw a whopping 80% viewership spike.
English news channels saw viewers spending an average five minutes extra compared to the earlier four Wednesdays during the same time band.
According to television viewership measurement agency aMap, the all-India viewership of English news channels during the PM’s media interaction jumped by 5,20,000 viewers to 19,99,000 viewers over the previous four Wednesdays’ average numbers.