Modi’s 9pm-9minutes video message receives a billion viewing minutes

• According to a BARC report, these are the third highest viewing minutes recorded in any PM’s speech.
  
• More than 119 million people watched the video telecasted across 199 channels.
  
• Previously, lockdown became the biggest news event in India so far. It received more views than the finale of Indian Premier League 2019, which had 133 million viewers.
  

The video message of Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking people to light diyas, candles and torches in their balconies fetched a billion viewing minutes. It is the sum of minutes watched by all individuals in total, according to the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC).

According to the report, it is the third highest viewing minutes recorded for any PM’s speech. Also, more than 119 million people watched the telecast of the video across 199 channels on April 3.

Modi’s ‘complete lockdown’ received 197 million views

When India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the 21-day world's largest lockdown to contain Coronavirus on March 24, as many as 197 million people were glued to TV across 201 news channels.

Date	PM Address to the nation	Channels	Viewership in millions
8 November 2016	Demonetisation	114	57
8 August 2019	Article 370	163	65
19 March 2020	Janata Curfew due to COVID-19	191	83
24 March 2020	Complete Lockdown in India due to COVID-19	201	197

The lockdown became the biggest news event in India so far. It received more viewers than the finale of Indian Premier League 2019, which had 133 million viewers.

Modi’s first address to the nation about Coronavirus on March 19 — where he announced Janta curfew — had 83 million viewers across 19 channels. The announcement about abrogation of Article 370 in August last year had 57 million viewers across 114 channels.

See also: Coronavirus cases in Maharashtra