MUMBAI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s stunning election victory on 23 May not just set new benchmarks in electoral politics but also powered television ratings to a new high. The biggest beneficiary of the sheer excitement around the much-debated Exit Polls and the eventual results was market leader Aaj Tak. Like PM Modi, the TV Today network’s flagship Hindi news channels established new viewership records.
According to BARC India’s Week 21, 2019 numbers, the Hindi news genre attained the third highest weekly level with 1.6 billion impressions. Counting Day attained an all time high (at day level) for Hindi News with 620 million impressions. Another interesting data point that has emerged is the fact that Hindi news channels were viewed by 279 million people over the week, up 30 per cent v/s P4W average.
Three Hindi new channels made it to the top at India/2+ on 23 May (Counting Day) with Aaj Tak grabbing the number one spot. ABP news and India TV were the other major gainers, ranking second and tenth respectively.
Full week Hindi news
Hindi News (Top10)
Exit Poll Sunday – 19 May 2019
Hindi News Exit Poll - Week 21
Counting Thursday – 23 May 2019
Hindi News Counting Day - Week 21
Aaj Tak was the number one news channel all through the elections, its viewership reaching 287 million during this period (India/2+, 11 April'19 to 24 May'19).
On the day of the vote count, Aaj Tak was on the top across all genres in the country, beating even Hindi GECs, movies and sports channels.
According to the TV Today Network, 19 crore viewers tuned in to Aaj Tak during Election Week, with 13 crore (2+, All India) of those watching Counting Day on the channel.
One of the major factors that seemed to have worked for the channel is the accuracy of its Exit Poll. India Today-Axis My India had predicted a huge win for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). The poll had predicted 339-365 Lok Sabha seats for the NDA and 77-108 seats for UPA.
The County Day went as per India Today-Axis My India’s script with NDA winning 353 seats and UPA ending up with 92.
