Prasar Bharati, India’s public service broadcaster recorded over a billion digital views and over six billion digital watch minutes, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said in a release on Sunday. The ministry highlighted that the digital channels of the public service broadcaster recorded over 100% growth in 2020. The growth is said to have been recorded across both the divisions of Prasar Bharati namely Doordarshan, the television broadcasting service and Akashvani, the radio broadcasting service. The ministry said that Prasar Bharati’s official app NewsOnAir added over 2.5 million users in 2020.
Prasar Bharati Digital Channels Record Over 100% Growth in 2020
The NewsOnAir app enables users access over 230 live radio channels along with live TV, news, current affairs as well as other entertainment programs in multiple formats including text, podcast and video. The ministry highlighted that the platform recorded over 300 million views with the live radio streaming feature emerging as the “most popular feature” on the app.
DD National, DD News along with the news content from DD Sahyadri and DD Bangla are said to be among the top 10 digital channels of Prasar Bharati. Further, DD Chandana, the Kannada programming channel along with DD Saptagiri, the Telugu channel are also said to be among the top 10 digital verticals of Prasar Bharati.
“While DD Sports and Akashvani Sports have created a steady digital following with live commentary, Prasar Bharati Archives and DD Kisan have been steady digital performers featuring in top 10,” the ministry said in a release on Sunday.
Pakistan Emerges as Second Largest Viewer Base for DD, AIR Content
The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s interactions with school students along with the 2020 Republic Day Parade are said to be amongst the popular videos of 2020. Further, a “rare video” from the DD National archives of Shankuntala Devi, an Indian author is also said to have emerged as a popular video in the previous year.
“Interestingly during 2020, Pakistan accounts for the second highest digital audience for DD and AIR content after domestic audience from within India, with the United States close behind,” the ministry said in the release.
The ministry also said that its YouTube channels across multiple Indian languages now hosts “thousands of hours of educational content and teleclasses.”
“In public interest, a dedicated team is working to dig out such musical, cultural, political content from thousands of tapes recorded over many decades in various stations of DD and AIR across the country,” the ministry said in the release. “So that these content are available in public domain with easy access to all for academic and research purposes.”
