India Lockdown: Mythology shows on TV pay off

MUMBAI: Audiences for traditional TV channels has rocketed during the lockdown buoyed in part by the popularity of mythological shows like ‘Ramayan’ and ‘Mahabharat’ on Hindi general entertainment channels (GECs).

As per latest BARC India viewership data for week 15 of 2020 (April 11-17), mythological shows were watched by 353 million viewers for 109 billion minutes, making up nearly 43% of overall Hindi GEC viewership. In pre-Covid-19 period (January 11-31), total viewership share of mythological content on Hindi GECs was just 14%, which jumped to 37% by week 14 (April 4-10).