Press releases

11 Jan 2021

Lukashenko’s New Year address sets all-time TV viewership record in Belarus

An archive photo

MINSK, 11 January (BelTA) – The New Year address of Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko to the Belarusian nation set the record as the most-watched television broadcast in Belarus, BelTA has learned.

More than 6.5 million of Belarusians watched the president’s address on New Year’s Eve. The information was compiled from the statistics of the ZALA platform, the MediaMetrix system of the national telecommunication company Beltelecom, and the TV audience measurement research using a people meter by the organization Realnoe Izmereniye. “Two different and separate data collection methods yielded roughly the same results: the viewership of the New Year address accounted for 70-78% of the total viewers of the linear TV. This figure should also take into account people who watched the address later, on a delay,” the Belarus 1 TV channel reported.

The two data collection systems did not count viewers who used the guest mode. Taking this into account, the real number of viewers is significantly higher.

The president’s New Year address is still trending on YouTube. It already has a total of around one million views on the channels of Belarus’ biggest state mass media outlets.