Tag: BARC India

Hotstar is an important platform for us: ABP’s Avinash Pandey

MUMBAI: The days of tuning into the news channel at 7 pm in your living room are gone. Today’s consumers want news to come to them not vice versa. Taking note of this, ABP News bought a Hotstar ticket, which boasts of 10 million downloads on Android devices.

ABP is the first Hindi news channel on the platform. New entrant Republic TV had secured a place in May this year.

ABP COO Avinash Pandey feels it unwise to consider Hotstar as a media product. He rather gives it the title of a platform in itself. “The exponential growth in business happens when you move from product delivery to platform delivery. A platform becomes a dissemination medium when multiple people for multiple reasons converge. Hotstar is a promising and future-ready platform and it is important to be on such a destination,” he says.

ABP shares its DNA with Star India since the channel was formerly called Star News – a partnership between ABP and Star from 2003 till Star decided to give up news for giving attention to entertainment in 2012. The synergy made a compelling case for both to unite.

The deal benefits both parties. While ABP can reach a large audience on a trusted platform, Star can give value addition to its Hindi-speaking audience via ABP News. Let us not forget the increased traction that advertisers will get through it.

At the 13th Indian Digital Operators Summit 2017, BARC India CEO Partho Dasgupta highlighted that the Hindi news genre grew by 93 per cent in week 41 of 207 over 2015. Pandey calls this growth as exponential, not progressive.

“People want news as video rather than text and heavy consumption happens via mobiles and tablet due to lower data charges,” says Pandey. The channel is cooking up something as he says that this partnership is just ‘the tip of the iceberg’ and more should be expected.

With the latest addition, Hotstar has live feeds of five channels – Fox News, Sky News, Asianet News, Republic TV and ABP news.

As per the comScore report for April 2017, ABP News had 20.7 million viewers on mobile out of the total 200 million news population on digital. It had just 1.7 million views via desktop devices. The report also showed that people across ages, both male and female prefer mobile to desktop any day.

Star India chairman and CEO Uday Shankar had earlier said, “Young India has embraced Hotstar. We believe that young, digital-savvy Indians are deeply interested in understanding their country and the world they live in.”

Hotstar has managed to hook viewers to its entertaining content. Now can it manage to get them to spend more time watching news as well?

November 3, 2017
Baahubali 2 catapults Sony Max across genres and in Hindi movies genre

BENGALURU: Baahubali 2 raked in viewership for Sony Max as the channel topped Broadcast Audience Research Council’s (BARC) weekly ratings for Top 5 Hindi Movie channels – HSM (U+R) : NCCS All : 2+ Individuals for week 41 of 2017 (Saturday, 7 October 2017 to Friday, 13 October 2017). Sony Max was ranked fourth in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genres (NCCS: All India (U+R): 2+ Individuals). Two other channels from the Sony Pictures Network (SPN) also were amongst BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels across genres list for week 41 of 2017.

Like week 40 of 2017 (Saturday, 30 September 2017 to Friday, 6 October 2017), three channels each from Star India and SPN, two channels from Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) and one channel each from The Sun Network and Network 18 comprised BARC’s top 10 channels across genres weekly list for week 41 of 2017. From the genres perspective, seven Hindi GEC channels, and one channel each from the Hindi GEC, Tamil GEC and Telugu GEC made it to the top 10 channels list across genres.

As is the norm (except during IPL cricket weeks) the top 10 channels across genre list was led by The Sun Network’s flagship Tamil GEC with 1,100.367 million impressions in week 41 of 2017. Sun TV was followed by Zeel’s FTA channel Zee Anmol with 759.094 million weekly impressions. Zee Anmol also led BARC’s top 10 Hindi GEC channels HSM (U+R): NCCS All: 2+ Individuals and top 10 Hindi GEC channels HSM (R): NCCS All : 2+ Individuals for the week. In the rural markets, Kaala Teeka on Zee Anmol was placed third among the top 5 Hindi GEC (R) programmes and helped the channel to its lead position in the rural markets.

Zeel’s flagship GEC Zee TV was third in BARC’s across genres list for week 41 with 708.222 million weekly impressions. Zee TV was also ranked second in the Hindi GEC (U+R) markets. Balaji Telefilms productions- Kumkum Bhagya and its spinoff Kundali Bhagya helped Zee TV retain its position in the Hindi GEC and the across genres markets.

As mentioned above, Sony Max was ranked fourth in the across genres list for week 41 of 2017 with 679.637 million weekly impressions followed by Viacom18’s flagship Hindi GEC Colors at fifth place with 644.187 million weekly impressions. Indian Hindi family drama Shakti – Astitva Ke Ehsaas Ki helped Colors, especially in the Hindi GEC urban markets in garnering viewership.

At sixth place in BARC’s top 10 channels across genres list for week 41 of 2017 was Star India’s FTA and recently renamed channel Star Bharat with 643.035 million weekly impressions. Star Bharat was ranked third in BARC’s top 10 Hindi GEC (U+R) list for week 41. Star Bharat was followed by SPN’s flagship Hindi GEC channel Sony Entertainment Television with 602.697 million weekly impressions at seventh place. The Amitabh Bachchan hosted Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) helped SET in garnering viewership.

Star India’s flagship Telugu GEC Star Maa was eighth in the top 10 channels across genres list for week 41 of 2017 with 581.897 million weekly impressions followed by SPN’s women focused Hindi GEC Star Pal with 530.962 million weekly impressions at ninth place. Star India’s flagship Hindi GEC Star Plus completed the top 10 channels across genres list for week 41 of 2017 with 527.26 million weekly impressions.

October 24, 2017
Sun, Zeel, Star India channels continue presence in across genres lists

BENGALURU: It’s festival season in India. Channels from three major networks in India continue finding presence in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) top 10 channels across genres All India (U+R): 2+ individuals. Sun TV from the Sun Network continued its pole position in the top 10 channels list in week 40 of 2017 (Saturday, 30 September 2017 to Friday, 6 October 2017. Two Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) channels have consistently been leading the Hindi GEC channels band, while three Star India channels (4 Star India channels in week 38 of 2017) have been present in the top 10 channels across genres weekly grouping. In week 40 of 2017, three Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) channels were also present in the weekly top 10 channels across genre table.

As mentioned above – three channels each from the Star Network and SPN, two channels from Zeel and one channel each from the Sun Network and Network 18 (Viacom 18) were present in the BARC weekly top 10 channels across genres tally for week 40 of 2017. From the genre/languages perspective, seven Hindi GEC, one channel each from the Hindi Movies, Tamil GEC and Telugu GEC genres were present in the weekly top 10 channels lists across channels’ group in week 40 of 2017.

Sun TV continued its unassailable rule over the weekly across genres band with 1,114.363 million weekly impressions (sum) at first place, followed by Zeel’s FTA channel Zee Anmol with 788.250 million weekly impressions (sum) at second place. Zee Anmol had strong support from Kaala Teeka in Hindi GEC and Kaala Teeka and Jamai Raja which were among BARC’s top 5 primetime programmes in the Hindi GEC –HSM (U+R) and Hindi GEC HSM (R) markets respectively. At third place was Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV with 665.989 million weekly impressions (sum), strongly supported by Kumkum Bhagya and its spinoff Kundali Bhagya in BARC’s top 5 primetime Hindi GEC – HSM (U+R) market and Hindi GEC – HSM (U) markets.

Fear Factor – Khatron Ke Khiladi Pain in Spain among BARC’s top 5 primetime programmes in Hindi GEC HSM (U+R) weekly results and Fear Factor Khatron Ke Khiladi Pain in Spain and Udaan in the Hindi GEC HSM (U) weekly results for week 40 of 2017 helped Network 18’s flagship Hindi GEC Colors to fourth place with 661.538 million weekly impressions (sum). Kaun Banega Crorepati’s (KBC) presence in BARC’s top 5 categories of Hindi GEC – HSM (U+R) and Hindi GEC HSM – (U) markets during primetime helped SPN’s flagship Hindi GEC Sony Entertainment Television to fifth place in BARC’s across genres table with 647.825 million weekly impressions (sum) in week 40 of 2017.

Star India’s renamed Hindi GEC Star Bharat was placed sixth in the across genres tally for week 40 of 2017 with 632.766 million weekly impressions (sum), followed by SPN’s Hindi Movies channel Sony Max with 615.63 million weekly impressions (sum) at seventh place. Hindi Feature Films’ Bahubali the beginning in BARC’s weekly categories of top 5 programmes for Hindi Movies (U+R) and Bahubali the beginning, Sultan and Raj Mahal 3 in BARC’s weekly results of top 5 programmes for Hindi Movies (U) helped Sony Max to return to BARC’s top 5 channels across genres list after a hiatus.

Star India’s flagship Hindi GEC Star Plus was ranked eighth in BARC’s weekly list across genres tally for week 40 of 2017 with 551.267 million weekly impressions (sum). SPN’s women oriented Hindi GEC Sony Pal was ranked ninth in the category with 549.725 million weekly impressions (sum) followed by Star India’s flagship Telugu GEC Star Maa with 524.551 million weekly impressions (sum) at tenth place.

Please refer to the list below for BARC data for top 10 channels across genres for weeks 38 to 40.

October 18, 2017
BARC India and DEN Networks join hands for RPD; move to boost TV viewership measurement

MUMBAl: TV viewership measurement in India is set to get a boost. In a major development, BARC India has partnered with the cable distribution giant DEN Networks for measuring TV viewership using Return Path Data (RPD) via its digital set-top boxes (STBs).

As part of this partnership, BARC India will fetch data from STBs of DEN Networks. DEN networks, will also use this data for subscriber management, packaging opportunities and to drive advertising revenue on their in-house channels.

BARC India, will use a portion of DEN Networks subscriber base to augment its TV measurement service. The large pool of panel households will also help address the issue of panel home tampering.

BARC India had recently upped its panel home size to 30,000. These RPD partnerships will enable BARC India to capture viewership from an exponentially larger panel.

“Collecting viewership data using RPD is a global practice. However, for BARC India it will be another global-first as we integrate this as part of the currency. Our partnership with DEN is the first step towards using RPD for TV viewership measurement,” said BARC India CBO Romil Ramgarhia.

BARC India, which is looking at partnering with more Cable and DTH operators for RPD, believes that this approach will allow expansion of panel households to over 150,000 in the near future.

“Currently, most cable / DTH operators in India do not have information on how their subscribers consume content. With more interactive services being launched, this will be a very valuable information for the platform owners. This partnership is a win-win for both and will benefit the larger ecosystem,” added Romil.

DEN Networks CEO SN Sharma said, “Data gathering and analytics is becoming increasingly relevant in a vast and heterogeneous society like India. With this partnership, we have taken the first steps towards world class data analytics of subscriber viewing patterns which will help us to serve our customers in a far more effective way and enabling us to offer personalised services.”

Also Read:

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October 13, 2017
WOW Cinema petitions TDSAT on delayed auctions for DD FreeDish slots

MUMBAI: Peeved by Doordarshan’s decision to keep a new round of e-auctions for slots for private TV channels on pubcaster’s FTA DTH service FreeDish on hold and fear of being shoved off the platform after annual contract expiry, WOW Cinema has moved disputes tribunal TDSAT questioning Prasar Bharati’s stand.

Wow Cinema’s manager Cinema 24×7 Pvt. Ltd. has requested telecoms and broadcast disputes tribunal TDSAT, amongst other temporary relief, to restrain DD’s parent Prasar Bharati from removing the TV channel from the DTH platform after expiry of the agreed terms in September 2017 till the final disposal of the present petition.

As reported by Indiantelevision.com earlier, slots for private broadcasters were not being filled up after falling vacant on DD FreeDish with the expiry of annual contracts, while Prasar Bharati has also reportedly put on hold a fresh round of e-auctions since August 2017 citing “administrative reasons”.

This stance of the pubcaster, according to the petition, would/could affect more TV channels on DD FreeDish. According to the petition, which is likely to come up for preliminary hearing on 12 October 2017 at TDSAT, on account of absence of clarity on e-auctions from Prasar Bharati and the agreement with the petitioner coming to an end September 2017, WOW Cinema would not be available to viewers of FreeDish despite the petitioner’s willingness to fulfil all future obligations as part of auto-renewal of the contract.

However, Prasar Bharati, through its counsel, has argued that since the petitioner was free to participate in a fresh round of auctions (as and when it happens) and would be governed by a fresh agreement on winning a slot, the request for an auto-extension was unfounded.

It was also submitted by Prasar Bharati that two more channels (VAA Movies and RT Movies) too had gone off DD FreeDish due to the expiry of their agreements in August 2017— and so Wow Cinema is not an exception.

DD FreeDish, a multi-channel FTA DTH service, was launched by Prasar Bharati in December 2004 and, at present, carried approximately 80 SD TV channels, along with 32 radio channels. This Ku-Band DTH service provides TV coverage throughout the Indian Territory (except Andaman & Nicobar islands) and, reportedly, has a subscriber base of about 22 millions.

Though FreeDish is now over a decade old, but it’s only in the last few years that private TV channels realised its importance and the platform’s reach. With BARC India starting to measure rural audience, the primary base of FreeDish, private broadcasters started to jump on to the FTA bandwagon — even paying sizable carriage fee. WOW Cinema, for example, paid Rs. 80 million in an e-auction for a year’s shelf life on DD’s KU-band platform.

Not only some private TV channels from the stable of big broadcast companies like Zee, Viacom18, Sony and Discovery, GECs and news channels included, had hopped on to the FTA bandwagon, but the likes of Star India had recently launched revamped or new TV channels (Star Bharat and Star Sports First) on the DD FreeDish with fresh programming to extend their reach and improve on audience measurement data.

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October 12, 2017
BARC India to TRAI and MIB: Tweak legislation to make data tamper-proof

NEW DELHI: India’s audience measurement company BARC India has urged broadcast regulator TRAI and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) to bring in legislations making TV viewership data tamper-proof and stipulate stringent penalties for offenders.

“Provisions need to be added in relevant regulations to not only dis-incentivize `viewership malpractices’ but also allow for punitive action against those indulging in such activities,” Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC India) has said.

In addition, it has also suggested the government and regulator to explore whether digital set-top-boxes and smart TV sets could be mandated by law to be made return path data (RPD)-enabled, moves that could enhance data robustness.

BARC India is of the opinion that guidelines for uplinking and downlinking of TV channels, issued by MIB, could be “suitably amended to recognize and codify” efforts by TV channels to infiltrate or tamper with data collection processes.

“A limited number of unscrupulous elements exist in the sector (a carryover from the past) who seek to infiltrate security of BARC India’s sample (panel homes), and unfairly influence their viewership habits. Their goal (and business) is to skew final viewership data in favour of some channels, using unfair means that BARC India defines as `viewership malpractice’,” the measurement body, a joint venture amongst IBF, AAAI and AISA, has said, highlighting it was grappling with legacy issues.

Over the last 12 months several instances have come to light where TV channels were found to be allegedly attempting to tamper and influence audience data and indulging in other malpractices to boost viewership or TV ratings points, as it’s popularly described in India. In some cases, BARC India undertook counter-measures resulting in alleged offenders taking legal recourse. In some other instances, the regulator had to issue warnings in an effort to do damage control.

“In terms of specifics, MIB’s channel licensing norms can stipulate that any broadcaster found to be indulging in unfair means to influence its viewership through acts of viewership malpractice can face… actions,” BARC India has suggested in its submission to TRAI’s consultation paper on `Ease of Doing Business in Broadcasting Sector’, adding a “fair system that evaluates complaints and adjudicates on them may also be included” in the regulations.

Amongst the moves that the government and sector regulator could take, as suggested by BARC India, include measures like errant company facing viewership data blackout for a limited period, telecast ban for a limited period and revoking of license depending on the seriousness of the offense. “A regulatory framework that helps prevent distortions and fraudulent activities in the eco-system would be highly desirable, and valuable to all sections of the industry,” it has said in its submission.

Why is BARC India pushing for legislative protection? Pointing out that “incorrect, false and misleading audience ratings can lead to incorrect content decisions”, the measurement organization said, “There are no sections in IPC with reference to which BARC India can file police complaint and this emboldens those involved in such (fraudulent) activities.”

In addition to seeking legal protection for data generation process, BARC India has also highlighted to TRAI the technological steps that can be taken — and is being explored by it.

Use of return path data to complement the present TV currency is one such option. RPD involves capturing TV viewing data of homes with addressable set-top-boxes (DTH and digital cable) by enabling “return path” flow of data. “Once enabled, this would allow capture of TV viewership data from several lakh homes, as opposed to the 50,000 sample mandated at present. Additionally, this larger sample would allow more accurate capture of viewership of niche audiences and genres/channels with small viewing base (such as regional language channels and genres like infotainment, etc.),” BARC India has said.

However, there’s a slight hitch. In the absence of technical standards presently, a large number of STBs in India is not enabled for RPD owing to inadequacies in hardware and software systems.

BARC India, which is presently in discussions with some DTH and digital cable service providers for return path data collation, has submitted that mandating manufacture and sale of RPD-enabled STBs in India would go a long way in further improving TV viewership measurement system in the country.

In this context, the organization has also urged TRAI to examine whether RPD-enabled smart TV sets could be mandated in India considering their rising sales as such a move could further add to the robustness in data collection.

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September 13, 2017
Nielsen estimates US TV homes for ’17-’18 season at 119.6 mn

NEW DELHI: Nielsen’s latest national TV household universe estimates for the United States says there are 119.6 million TV homes for the 2017-18 TV season. In contrast the total number of Indian television homes estimated by Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC India) earlier this year stood at a shade over 183 million.

Additionally, the percentage of total US homes with televisions receiving traditional TV signals via broadcast, cable, DBS or telco, or via a broadband Internet connection connected to a TV set is currently at 96.5 per cent, an increase of 0.5 percentage points from last year’s estimate, according to data released by Nielsen last week of August 2017.

Nielsen uses US Census Bureau, combined with information from the national TV panel, to arrive at advance TV universe estimates in early May. It then distributes final universe estimates before the start of each TV season.

But to put things in perspective, Indiantelevision.com would say that the population of the US in 2017, as per figures available, stood at 326,474,013, which is about 4.34 per cent of the world population. In contrast, as per United Nations data, the population of India is approximately 1.3 billion.

The number of persons aged two and older in the American TV households is estimated to be 304.5 million, which represents a 0.9 per cent increase from last year. Increases in US Hispanic, black and Asian households were also seen, due to estimated increases in population growth and TV penetration, Nielsen said.

So, what is the annual American TV season that Nielsen is referring to? According to Wikipedia, it means the 2017-18 network television schedules for the five major English-language commercial broadcast networks in the United States that covers prime time hours from September 2017 to August 2018. The schedule is followed by a list per network of returning series, new series, and series canceled after the 2016–17 season. The commercial networks include NBC, Fox, ABC, CBS and The CW, while PBS or public broadcasting service is excluded from these calculations. The CW data is not included on the weekends since it does not carry network programming.

The 2018 national American universe estimates by Nielsen reflect real changes in population since last year and updated TV penetration levels, differentially calculated for qualifying market break and age/sex demographic categories.

Nielsen applies TV penetrations to convert the total household and population estimates to TV households and persons therein. The 2018 TV penetration for US households was estimated based on data collected during the recruitment of homes for Nielsen’s people meter panel.

Nielsen’s national definition of a TV household states homes must have at least one operable TV/monitor with the ability to deliver video via traditional means of antennae, cable set-top-box or satellite receiver and/or with a broadband connection.

Again, in the Indian context, as per data collated by Indiantelevision.com in the public domain, while total TV homes stand at 183 million, total television viewership stood at 28.9 billion impressions in Week 34 of BARC India ratings. The previous 13-week average viewership was approximately 27 billion, showing a rise of seven per cent.

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September 7, 2017
Television reigns in rural India despite 79 pc OTT scope

MUMBAI: Television remains the dominant medium as far as the news, entertainment and advertising need in rural India is concerned although 79 per cent consumers (signifying crucial scope for OTT platforms) own a mobile, including those living in towns/villages inhabited by as low as 2,000-3000.

Market research firm Kantar IMRB has found that only 22 per cent of rural consumers who were surveyed read a magazine or a newspaper in the four weeks preceding the survey. And, only four per cent surveyed said they listened to the radio, Mint reported.

The penetration of mobile phones is the highest in southern and northern India at 80 per cent while it was 75 per cent in the west and 78 per cent in the east.

In its report ‘Star 2017,’ the firm said that it found that 59 per cent of all rural consumers polled watched television in the previous week before they were queried for the survey. The report showed scant use of personal computer or laptop in rural India.

These conclusions are in sync with BARC India data. As reported by Indiantelevision.com, according to BARC figures released in February 2017, the all-India TV universe has increased to 183 million from the earlier collated figure of 154 million with the growth in rural audience showing a quantum jump signifying that upswing is coming from non-urban areas.

The data highlights that while the total urban TV universe stood at 84,414 (in ‘000) in 2017, the comparative rural figure is 98,639 (in ‘000), signifying that the rural segment has grown at a faster rate, which opens up whole new marketing options for broadcasters and advertisers. The comparative old figures as per BARC estimates in 2015 were 77544,000 (urban) vs. 75967,000 (rural).

This data showed that, while the urban-rural audience mix was almost equal earlier, the rural segment has outpaced the urban as per latest figures in rate of growth. The data reiterates that since it started surveying the rural audience, a whole new world has opened up for subscribers of the data, which, incidentally, also include government organisations apart from the traditional TV channels and advertising agencies.

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September 4, 2017
Views-based journalism scores, Sun TV’s Udaya News to cease ops

MUMBAI: Every business and television channel faces competition sooner or later. Competing companies generally bring in better products. But, Udaya News, the first 24×7 Kannada channel that ruled the roost for over 15 years, saw a decline as rival channels presented stories with strong views — a la Arnab Goswami.

Placed at the sixth position among the Kannada-language news channels as per the latest BARC India data, it is on the verge of closure. However, other Sun channels such as Udaya Movies, Udaya TV and Udaya Comedy will continue operations.

Ratings of Udaya News had started declining after a series of news channels came in, in the past few years and the former failed to put up a fight.

Karnataka viewers in the 1990s relied entirely on Doordarshan till Udaya News lauched in 1998; it is now shutting down owing to huge losses. In a letter addressed to the Karnataka government secretary, owner of Udaya News, Sun Network stated that the channel would cease operations on 24 October, and 73 employees would lose their jobs.

Udaya News enjoyed a wonderful viewership till the rise of TV 9 Kannada — the leader today, followed by Public TV and Suvarna News.

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August 26, 2017
Star Bharat to be available on DD FreeDish as b’caster’s fourth FTA offering

MUMBAI: Going FTA seems to be the flavor of the season. Star India’s Hindi general entertainment channel Life OK, which will be soon rebranded as Star Bharat, is now slated to be available on DD FreeDish.

Recently, one of India’s largest broadcasting company Star India had won additional slots on pubcaster’s FTA KU-band service (DD FreeDish) by bidding shades over Rs. 160 million. At present, the three Star channels on the platform are Star Utsav, Star Utsav Movies and Star Sports First.

Prasar Bharati sources admitted to indiantelevision.com that Star India has additional slots on DD FreeDish, but could not give an immediate time frame for any new channel to be made part of the FTA platform. Reason: DD FreeDish is being upgraded with a new technology (MPEG-4) that will help it enhance overall viewer experience as also get more TV channels on board after signal compression.

“We cannot guarantee if the technological upgradation will be complete by the end of this month so as to accommodate more TV channels,” a source in Prasar Bharati said, explaining that the arrival of Star Bharat or any other TV channel on FreeDish could get delayed beyond August.

Meanwhile, according to industry sources, shows such as ‘May I come in Madam’, ‘Sher-E-Punjab Ranjeet Singh’ and ‘Chandrakanta’ will go off air and shows like ‘Savdhaan India’ and ‘Ghulam’ will continue on Star Bharat. Shows like ‘Kya Haal Mr Paanchaal’, produced by Optimystix, are among the new launches. Life OK earlier carried another named and was originally launched in 2011.

‘Aayushman Bhava’, produced by White Horse Telefilms (a murder mystery) and Zama Habib’s ‘Nimki Mukhiyaan’, which was supposed to have aired on Star Plus, has now been shifted to soon-to-be launched Star Bharat. It’s a story about a girl who becomes a village chief and changes her entire village.

Star Bharat is also exploring launching a bhajan reality show ‘Om Shanti Om’, produced by Colosceum Media, which will be likely judged by rock star yoga guru-turned-entrepreneur Baba Ramdev, along with Sonakshi Sinha, Kanika Kapoor and Shekhar Ravjiani.

On 17 August 2017, Star Bharat launched its first TVC, #Bhuladedarr. The TVC gives a new definition to ‘overpowering inhibitions’.
BARC data has shown in the past that private sector FTA channels on DD FreeDish, like Zee Anmol and Star Utsav, garner good audience and help in upping the ratings of such TV channels.

Doordarshan’s FreeDish is a multi-channel FTA DTH service, which was launched in December 2004 with a modest collection of 33 TV channels. Regular upgrades has enhanced capacity and presently platform has the capacity of 80 SD TV channels along with 32 radio channels. The service is a available in KU-band on GSAT-15.

(With additional inputs from BB Nagpal in New Delhi)

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August 17, 2017