Ramayan’s 170 million views from four episodes says India still can’t get over popular mythological shows from the 80s

• (March 28)Ramayan received 170 million views in four episodes aired over the weekend, the Broadcast Audience Research Council.
  
• The importance of each episode is so much that the time slot for airing Ramayan was changed on April 3 as it coincided with PM Modi’s special address to the nation.
• Unlike other paid channels, DD Channel is free-to-air and is accessible to a large number of people.

Ramayan, three-decades-old TV series, received 170 million views in four shows aired over the weekend, said the Broadcast Audience Research Council. This catapulted the Ramanand Sagar production as the highest watched “serial” in the Hindi general entertainment space ever.

In fact, it receives so many eyeballs that the time slot for airing Ramayan was changed on April 3 as it coincided with PM Modi’s special address to the nation. Prasar Bharati didn’t want people to miss a single episode.



Source: BARC

According to Sunil Lulla, BARC’s chief executive, the numbers notched up by the series was a bit surprising and called the move as a “brilliant” one by Prasar Bharati. He said the show will attract advertisers soon

Unlike other paid channels, DD Channel is free-to-air and is accessible to a large number of people.

As the Covid-19 pandemic is keeping people locked down in their homes,Doordarshan brought back its Golden Era shows back on TV — Shaktimaan, Mahabharat, and Byomkesh Bakshi. In fact, DD channels received a lot of viewership after the introduction of broadcasters like Star and Zee which took over the market.

But now, the tables have turned as some of India’s youngest are watching the series and actively debating it on social media. The number of memes and discussion of feminism in the series shows that the novelty factor and its old-world charm has brought it a new set of fans. And, it has changed the brand image of DD as well.

In 2019, the total number of viewers on all DD channels was 193 million — a little more than what Ramayan’s four episodes garnered in two days.

“Prasar Bharati has subscribed to the services of M/s Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), India for viewership data of Doordarshan (DD) channels. As per BARC data, viewership of DD National channels increased from 15.81 crore in 2018 to 18.31 crore in 2019, while that of DD Regional channels has increased from 15.78 crore in 2018 to 19.33 crore in 2019,” Information & Broadcasting (I&B) minister Prakash Javadekar said in the Lok Sabha.

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