PM Modi’s show pushes up Discovery channel’s viewership

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appearance on survival television series Man vs Wild has pushed broadcasting channel Discovery up the ratings chart, data from broadcasting agency BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council) shows. Discovery channel has notched up the third spot in the 9 pm-10 pm viewing slot when the show aired on 12 August, with 3.05 million impressions. It was the third highest viewership in the slot after Hindi GEC (general entertainment channel) leaders Star Plus (3.67 million) and Zee TV (3.3 million).

Impressions refer to the number of individuals in thousands of a target audience who viewed an event, averaged across minutes. BARC India is the country’s TV viewership monitoring agency.

The premiere on the Discovery network (across 12 Discovery channels) notched up the highest viewership also in the 9m-10 pm slot, across channels active at that time, with 3.69 million impressions.

In a statement, the Discovery network said that the premiere delivered the highest ever reach for the infotainment genre in the 9 pm-10 pm slot with 6.1 million tune-ins on Discovery channel, which was 15 times more as compared to the last four weeks average of the same slot. The premiere slot performance of the show gave Discovery 93% channel share in the infotainment genre.

Delivering an average time spent per viewer of 29.2 minutes, the premiere notched up the highest ever sampling in the infotainment genre with 15.6 million tune-ins across the network.

The cumulative reach for the show across the Discovery network, premiere and repeat included, and on DD National was around 42.7 million over the week, Discovery said. The special edition of Man Vs Wild with Bear Grylls & Prime Minister Modi is also being showcased on Discovery network of channels in 179 countries.

“The historic edition of Man Vs Wild made a larger point about the importance of wildlife conservation and sensitized people about environmental change. In that sense, it was much more than a TV show,” Megha Tata, managing director, South Asia, Discovery, said in a statement.

To build on the show’s legacy, Discovery India has decided to support the PM’s message of committing to wildlife conservation in India. As part of its global Project C.A.T – Conserving Acres for Tigers, Discovery has partnered with World Wildlife Fund to ensure healthy habitats for future generations of tigers by helping conserve nearly 6 million acres of biodiversity rich areas across four countries. With this contribution, Discovery India will extend support to the tiger conservation program at Corbett Landscape and Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve in partnership with WWF India.

The Man Vs Wild episode with host Bear Grylls and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was produced for Discovery India by Bear Grylls Ventures & Electus a Propagate company. It premiered simultaneously on 12 Discovery channels in India — Discovery Channel, Discovery HD World, Animal Planet, Animal Planet HD World, TLC, TLC HD World, JEET Prime, JEET Prime HD, Discovery Science, Discovery Turbo, Discovery Kids and DTamil. The premiere on Discovery and Discovery HD World, and in five languages, including English, Bengali, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.