BENGALURU: News about the fate of godman Ram Rahim on Monday, 28 August 2017 was one of the most watched events on news television in the recent past in India going by data shared by Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC).

Viewership of the Hindi News genre grew 2.1 times from 121.5 million impressions (the average viewership for the previous four Mondays’) to 256.1 million impressions on Monday, 28 August 2017. 

Here’s how the top 5 Hindi News channels performed on Monday, 28 August 2017 as per BARC data:

Week 35 of 2017 (Saturday, 26 August 2017 to Friday, 1 September 2017) saw viewership of Hindi News channels grow as compared to week 34 (Saturday 19 August 2917 to Friday, 25 August 2017). The combined viewership of the top 5 Hindi News genre (Urban + Rural) grew 20.4 percent to 738.482 million impressions in week 35 from 613.396 million impressions.

On the other hand, viewership of the top 5 English News channels actually shrank by 1.2 percent in week 35 to 2.942 million weekly impressions from 2.979 million weekly impressions in week 34 of 2017. It is probably the Ram Rahim verdict day news that helped them retain their previous weeks ratings, almost. The English News Genre grew by 46 percent from 482 Impressions ‘000s (Av Impressions for the last 4 Mondays) to 703 Impressions ‘000s on Monday 28 August 2017.Please refer to the figure below: