The television viewership in the country witnessed a rise of 11% to 622 million viewers between 21 – 27 March 2020 (week 12) when compared to January 11-31, 2020 (week 2) as per the data provided by TV audience measurement body, Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) (Across Genre : All India (Urban+Rural) in collaboration with Nielsen. Titled, ‘Crisis Consumption: An Insights series into TV, smartphone and Audiences’, the report also highlights TV viewing minutes per week went up by 37% to 1,215 billion minutes as average time spent rose by 43% to four hours and 39 minutes in week 12 as compared to the pre-COVID-19 period (week 2).
The general news genre recorded a 298% rise in terms of viewership followed by business news at 180%, in week 12 the report revealed. The share of news as part of total TV viewership grew from 7% in week 2 to 21% in week 12. Movie channels grew 56% while general entertainment channels (GEC) witnessed only 3% growth. GECs’ share of total viewership recorded a 45% drop as in week 12 GEC’s share of total viewership stood at 39% as opposed to 52% in week 2. Additionally, Hindi consumption grew 41% with non-prime time viewership surging by more than 70% in India.
The report also highlights that demographically, the 2-14 years age group recorded the highest increase in viewership with 47%. Moreover, metropolitan cities recorded a 43% increase in viewership with Mumbai witnessing 48% growth, followed by Delhi with 48%. Since people are staying at home and are able to consume TV throughout the day, the growth in TV viewing is coming during non-prime time slots (6 am – 6 pm).
As for advertisement volumes, the average daily free commercial time (FCT) grew by 15% to six lakh seconds in week 12 with the news genre recording the highest growth at 24%. Food and beverage brands dominated the advertising space with 24% share, followed by personal care/personal hygiene sector at 18% in between March 14-24.
The report, which also revealed data on content consumption on smartphones, highlighted how content consumption on smartphones has increased by 12% with users spending 3.8 hours a day on their devices in week 12. While the maximum increase has been between the 35-44 year age group, mini metro cities showed the highest growth at 15%, followed by tier two cities at 12%.
News apps saw 17% more users per week with an increase of 45% in time spent/user/week in week 12. This growth was led by regional news apps at 111% with 455 increase in time spent/user/week to 40 minutes in week 12 as opposed to week 2. Gaming apps saw an increase of 11% in users/week and with a rise of 21% to 191 minutes on time spent/user/week. Meanwhile, social media apps’ times spent/user/week recorded a rise 42% to 274 minutes, while messaging apps saw a 43% rise in time spent. Interestingly, time spent on video streaming apps recorded 11% to 236 minutes rise, while audio streaming witnessed 18% drop in time spent.
The re-run of Ramayana on Doordarshan recorded all-time high ratings among ‘serials’ in Hindi GEC withthe Sunday evening broadcast getting 51 million viewers, as per BARC’s data
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