From the world premiere of Adele's new music video to Madonna's tribute to Prince, the Billboard Music Awards 2016 saw it all. Aired on May 23rd, the award telecast experienced a TV viewership of 1.2 million people in India. The event was showcased on VH1 across two time slots:
The first telecast happened along with the US live telecast from 6:30 AM to 9:30 AM, attracting an Indian TV audience of 0.5 million viewers. The repeat telecast from 9 PM to 12 AM saw a higher viewership of 0.76 million people.
The event saw its highest TV viewership in the state of Maharashtra which had a 12% share of the show’s total viewers.
In the words of music journalist, Arjun S Ravi, "Indians have been tripping over western music since the 20s." And the numbers prove it right.