Public broadcaster Doordarshan has struck gold with the telecast of the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony as its ratings jumped almost 133%, the highest in the last decade for a single event aired ?live?. Its peak ratings (TVR) of 4.8% even managed to exceed those of some of the private satellite channels including the show ratings of Salman Khan?s Bigg Boss-4 which opened with a TVR of 3.6%.
According to data provided by Audience Measurement and Analytics (aMap), the overnight audience measurement agency and the estimates of media planners and advertisers, together the overall viewership for Doordarshan from within India and abroad on October 3 would have swelled to over 170 million, the highest in recent times.
On a standalone basis, a record number of 30 million viewers watched DD-National live on cable platforms on Sunday evening, said the aMap data. This is over thrice the average number of viewers that tuned in to DD-National in the previous four Sundays during the evening hours, aMap data said.
Media analysts added if the viewership of Doordarshan on all six private DTH platforms were to be clubbed with the cable?s viewership data then the overall viewership of the opening ceremony would touch 50 million mark easily.
According to Doordarshan insiders, the viewership of Doordarshan in the terrestrial market (non-cable), would have been 60-65 million alone. ?Add the numbers of cable and non-cable viewership and it is estimated that a record 100 million viewers tuned in to watch the opening ceremony on Doordarshan within India,? a senior DD official said. Overseas, another 20 million-plus viewers across the globe in countries including Australia, South-East Asia, UAE, Oman, Qatar and other west-Asian countries, the official added.
According to aMap, the market share of Doordarshan on Sunday stood at 14.2% which is more than double compared to the average market share of DD in the previous four Sundays. ?Almost the entire country was tuned in to DD for the opening ceremony…I am not surprised by the estimates of viewership jumping on Sunday evening,? a senior official in Doordarshan said.
However, according to advertisers, DD could not manage to hard-sell the opening ceremony to the advertisers except a few like the Punjab National Bank, Incredible India campaign and few locals.
However, director general Doordarshan Aruna Sharma is confident of generating cash from the cricket broadcast. ?Let the games get over and then I will disclose how much was generated in ad-revenue,? Sharma said. Doordarshan has committed a minimum of Rs 100 crore and a maximum of Rs 300 crore to the organising committee of CWG.