MUMBAI: A great orator and a crowd puller, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who addressed the nation on Independence Day proved to be an audience puller for pubcaster Doordarshan. The early morning speech telecast on DD National and DD Sports, reached out to more audiences this year than the previous Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. However there was a drop in sampling as compared to the last year, when PM Modi gave his maiden Independence Day speech.

The year 2014 when Modi was appointed as the Prime Minister of India, saw the Independence Day speech gaining the highest reach and viewership. According to TAM TV analysis, while the pubcaster garnered 2.3 per cent reach in 2014, its reach dropped a little this year, but was still more than that of 2013. DD National and DD Sports recorded 1.9 per cent reach on 15 August, 2015, while on the same day in 2013 it managed 1.6 per cent reach.

Apart from Doordarshan, there was heavy coverage of Independence Day on Hindi and English News channels as well. 

Among the Hindi News channels, Zee News and India News gave maximum coverage to Independence Day, but it was Aaj Tak and ABP News, which garnered maximum returns on the news. While Aaj Tak with 170 GRPs topped the Hindi news genre in terms of ratings, it was India News, which saw the highest time spent, as it recorded 32,000 seconds.

Like last year, Times Now and News X were again leaders in terms of coverage of Independance Day, in the English News channel genre. However, it was Times Now with 8 GRPs, which received maximum returns, thanks to its coverage, which was spread across the day unlike other players. News X topped the time spent category with 37,000 seconds.