A caption broadcast by public media channel M1 at the moment it halted propaganda has been viewed nearly 2 million times on social media, the MTVA Press and Marketing Office told the Hungarian News Agency (MTI) on Thursday.

Articles published about the event noted strong public interest in the caption and the extraordinary programme change that followed on M1 on Tuesday. The broadcast interruption lasted from 15:59:46 to 19:56, nearly four hours in total, the office said.

Lots of people were interested

According to official data from Nielsen, there were 50,355 tune-ins during that period. However, due to the methodological specifics of Hungary’s audience measurement system, the number of viewers who watched the silent caption could not be measured. The figure of over 50,000 reflects the combined viewership of the minutes immediately before and after the broadcast interruption.

Photos and videos posted on social media, however, clearly show that in many locations, groups of people gathered simultaneously in front of television screens, the office added. This suggests that the actual number of people who saw and often photographed the caption was significantly higher than the officially measurable data, it said.

The Witness played after 4-hour blackout

The extraordinary situation was followed at 19:56 by the broadcast of the classic Hungarian film The Witness, which attracted significant viewer interest. The film’s viewership reached nearly three times the channel’s average daily audience prior to that day.

Viewership data for The Witness showed a reach of 653,191 and an average audience of 122,440. The average viewership for the entire day before the film was 41,960, the office said. Hungarian film dramas later in the evening also drew considerable audiences.

Online platforms also saw exceptional interest. On July 7, nearly ten times as many people watched M1’s broadcast live online as on previous days. More than 20,000 people watched The Witness live on the public media’s online platforms. The hirado.hu website has had more than 46,000 visitors since July 7.

The broadcast interruption also resonated significantly on social media: the combined number of views for the captioned posts on M1’s Facebook and Instagram pages is currently nearly 2 million, the statement said.

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