‘Sushant’s Death’ Dominated TV News Airtime For Past 4 Weeks

A market research firm Nielson and BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council) in a survey found out what dominated the prime TV news airtime in the last four weeks. It is the controversial, Sushant’s death that took over the airtime and TV viewership on TV news for the past four weeks.

Sushant was found dead in his Mumbai apartment on June 14 and initial reports said it was a suicide. Later, everything seems to be changed with a new turn and twist each day. Each controversial update, allegation, and speculation made it to headlines and a crucial piece of evidence unearthed every day shook the news channels.

According to the survey report, the list has five big news items that dominated TV news airtime every week from 25th July to 21st August. Apart from August’s first week, when the Ram mandir’s Bhoomi Pujan was held, almost all the news channels gave away a majority of their time towards the coverage of Sushant Singh Rajput’s death controversy.

There was a little impact on Sushant’s death coverage airtime with Kozhikode Air India flight crash landing, Rajasthan political turmoil triggered by Sachin pilot, and of course MS Dhoni’s retirement. The lockdown increased the TV viewership in a massive manner and the overall news consumption has gone over 200 percent growth.