MUMBAI: The last two months have been a festival for news channels as elections took place across the country. It all boiled down to the orgasmic climax of counting day, 16 May. Let’s have a look at how Hindi News channels fared in the Hindi speaking markets (HSM).

As per TAM data provided by a news channel, ABP News led in the HSM market but overall India was led by Aaj Tak. India TV on the other hand was third in both but India TV showed highest viewership from the five HSM metros as well as Delhi and Mumbai.

Let’s have a look at the data for HSM markets, all India market and the five HSM metros(Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Pune).

Source: TAM 16 May 2014, 24 hours CS ABC 15+

A channel source says that on an average day, the viewership tends to be 30 per cent to 40 per cent less than what it was on the counting day.

In the five HSM metros, India TV had 10489 GVTs, Aaj Tak had 8253 GVTs and ABP News 8344 GVTs.

As most channels began their election coverage, prime time news began at 6:00 am and went till midnight. What usually is the bastion of business news channels was taken by general news channels for the crucial day.