The Indian government on Thursday said there has been no decline in viewership of the country’s national broadcaster Doordarshan even though the market has fragmented and private sector TV channels’ numbers have increased.

It also said that the network has been cornering advertising revenue, including those from non-government sources.

“There is no decline in viewership in the recent years in spite of increase of Private TV Channels in the broadcasting space during past years and fragmentation of audience due to many private TV channels relaying Doordarshan’s live content,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said in Rajya Sabha (Upper House of parliament).

The Minister was replying to a query on the performance of DD from a fellow parliamentarian whether the pubcaster’s viewership was “declining sharply in recent years” and the trends in revenue generation of the network.

DD’s parent Prasar Bharati, an autonomous body, is funded by the public as it receives annual financial aid from the government.

According to Thakur, Prasar Bharati presently has 36 Doordarshan  24×7 channels that are operating in standard definition (SD) mode, while three of these channels are also made available in high definition (HD) to the viewers for enriched viewing experience. In addition, there are 51 co-branded educational channels.

However, the details of the HD channels were not given.

As per Broadcast Audience Research Council India, the gross unique viewership data for the 22 subscribed SD channels out of 36, across the network, from 2016 to 2021 is as under:

Year	Gross Unique Viewers (in Millions) for DD Channels (SD)
2016	615.4
2017	719.8
2018	743.1
2019	760.4
2020	747.0*
2021	684.9*(*Viewership data for DD National, DD News, DD India till 02.10.2020.)

Prasar Bharati, according to Thakur, has also taken a number of steps to further increase DD viewership that included the following:

• During the lockdown period in 2020 Doordarshan aired iconic serials such as ‘Ramayan’ and ‘Mahabharat’, which resulted in record highest television viewership for Doordarshan.
• DD RETRO, a dedicated entertainment channel, has been created to expand the viewership base.
• All live sporting events of national importance are now being aired on a dedicated sports channel DD Sports to ensure a sustained audience.
• DD India has been dedicated to English News and DD News to Hindi News to cater to diverse audiences across India.
• Live streaming is also being done digitally of major live events being broadcast by Doordarshan to engage the youth and to attract them to DD channels.

“In a sign of changing viewership pattern, it was witnessed recently during coverage of Republic Day Celebrations 2022 that the viewership on YouTube network of DD garnered more views (2.6 crore) than its TV network (2.3 crore). It is evident that the Doordarshan’s viewership on YouTube platform alone was greater than its TV viewership as reported by BARC. This was further exponentially amplified to a total of more than 3.2 Billion Television Viewing Minutes by more than 180 channels across the country, which aired these Doordarshan visuals,” Thakur elaborated on viewing trends on linear and digital platforms.

The commercial revenue earned by Doordarshan during the last three years is as under:

Financial Year	Revenue (in Rs. Crore)
	From Government Advertisement	From non- Government Advertisement	Total
2018-2019	496.41	127.43	623.84
2019-2020	233.08	115.75	348.83
2020-2021	132.97	139.64	272.61