The votes for The 17th Indian Television Academy (ITA) Awards have been cast, and record-breaking numbers have been revealed. A staggering 1 crore votes cast across categories have broken all previous records, not just in terms of the sheer number, but also the time spent by voters on the official voting website – www.ita2017.com. The average session duration on the website clocks 4 minutes 15 seconds, making it higher than the internet average of 3 minutes 43 seconds.
The much celebrated and revered Indian Television Awards is an endeavor to garner and galvanize the entire work-force of the Television industry in India. Every year, viewers get to cast their vote in a bid to honor talent that truly deserves accolades for their work. These categories include Best Actor – Male, Best Actor – Female, Best TV shows, Best Entertainment Channel, Best News Channel – Hindi, Best News Channel – English, and many others.
Commenting on the historic mandate Anu Ranjan, President of The ITA said “We had a massive digital outreach this year. We wanted to target the youth to participate in the voting process, through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Whatsapp. The votes were registered through our website & also through SMS. The breakup of the votes received is 68% from India and 32% from other countries across the world.”
Commenting on audience response, Raj Nayak, COO, Viacom18 said, “1 crore is not a number, it is a revolution, that has set a brand-new benchmark not only for us, but also for the industry. There is premium content being created for Television today, reaching out to viewers across all age groups. With internet adoption acquiring new heights and content being available across various platforms, the power lies in the viewers’ hands today, and they are well aware of it. This mammoth number proves that they want to communicate their choices. These votes are a celebration of that. We are thankful to our viewers for being so participative, and we promise them that the scintillating award ceremony will surely live up to their expectations.”
Shashi Ranjan, Convenor of The ITA elaborated, “The results have stunned the industry and TV analysts alike. Reaching the magical figure of 1 Crore has been a validation of our approach. The staggering results have shown the reach and popularity of TV as a medium across the country. Infact the participation of fans from countries other than India has been very encouraging”.
74.1% votes were cast by women and 25.9% by men – completely defying gender behavior online. Cast globally, 63.98% votes were cast in India, 5.35% in USA and 4.49% in Indonesia, followed by the rest. Unsurprisingly, majority of votes were cast by mobile users, at 84.06%, followed by 12.30% by laptop and a minority of 3.55% tablet users.
The gala event of Indian Television Awards will be held on 5th November 2017 in Mumbai and will be hosted by the sharp-witted host Manish Paul and the favorite Dadi of Indian television – ‘Ali Asgar’. The event will witness performances by Arjun Bijlani, Adaa Khan, Rashmi Desai, ShubhangiAtre, among other telly stars. Fun acts by Mouni Roy, Shantanu Maheshwari and Ravi Dubey are sure to infuse spice into the glamorous and entertaining evening.