Tag: BARC

BARC India changes TG to 2+ for all genres from week 17

MUMBAI: Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has informed that from the coming week, week 17, it will release data with TG as 2+ for all genres. For English, lifestyle and infotainment genres the market has been changed to All India. This change will allow for more direct comparison between genres and aligns with common measurement best practices.

The ratings body said that over the years it has been getting requests to display data for different TG cuts on the website.

“We have evaluated all the requests and to maintain uniformity across, it has been decided that from (coming week) week 17, BARC India will release data on website and mobile with TG as 2+ for all genres and market as All India for English, lifestyle and infotainment genres. This change will allow for more direct comparison between genres and aligns with common measurement best practices,” said the statement.

Earlier, the cuts were based on different age groups and ABC sections as well as male/female separation.

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May 4, 2020
News key TV consumption driver, but declines on weekly performance

MUMBAI: For the straight sixth week, the news genre continues to be the television consumption driver; it has grown by over 160 per cent in the week 16, says the sixth edition joint report of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India – Nielsen India. However, the news broadcasters continue to fall marginally in terms of viewership week-on-week basis.

This week, the Hindi news channels fell by over 11 per cent while English dropped by 4 per cent. The COVID period has given news channels an upper hand to gain in viewership than other genres but has been failing to sustain its weekly performance and tumbled for the straight fourth week now.

Slipping to the fourth spot from the second, ABP News fell most of the top five Hindi news channels by over 20 per cent to 211,859 weekly impressions in week 16. While despite being the most-watched channel for the sixteenth week in a row, Aaj Tak declined by over 15 per cent to 295700 weekly impressions in week 16, followed by Zee News, which slumped by 13 per cent in the current week to 211294 impressions. Zee Media’s Hindi news channel has retained its position in the top five list.

Retaining its third position, India TV fell marginally by over 6 per cent to 233, 017 weekly impressions in week 16. For the first time so far this year, Republic Bharat has outperformed all its peers except Aaj Tak to become the second most-watched Hindi news channel with almost the same viewership numbers that of last week. It secured 244,354 weekly impressions in week 16. The channel’s prime-time debate show Poochta Hai Bharat has become most-watched in terms of viewership in week 16.

The English news channels reported a mixed performance in the current week as three news channels out of the top five registered marginal growth, while the other two fell substantially.

Republic TV, Times Now, and CNN-News18 grew marginally this week by over seven, five, and six per cent respectively as compared to week 15. Republic TV has continued its dominance of being the most-watched English news channel, followed by Times Now, which had slipped to third position last week, has regained its second position week 16. CNN-News18 failed to get featured last week in the top five English news channels and has reclaimed its stand at the fourth position in the current week.

Zee Media’s English news channel WION, securing the fifth position in the top five list, has tumbled substantially by over 30 per cent in terms of viewership. The channels gained 415 impressions in week 16 as compared to 600 impressions in the previous week. While India Today fall back to its third position after climbing one spot up, it declined by over 18 per cent to 837 weekly impressions in the current week as compared to 1031 impressions in the earlier week of BARC.

BARC-Nielsen India has been coming up with television and digital consumption report every week. The report compares the current lockdown period to week two to four (11-31 January) of BARC, which is termed as pre-Covid2019 period.

Says the sixth edition of BARC-Nielsen report: “News enjoys a higher share in megacities in week 16 in the premium panel; its viewership during prime-time across megacities is higher.” It further adds that the ad volume in news genre by language grew marginally as against pre-Covid2019 period, the highest growth is registered in Hindi, English, Gujarati and Oriya news market

May 1, 2020
IPL viewers shift to GEC, movies & news

MUMBAI: The April and May season is generally peak time for sports and the Indian Premier League (IPL). In 2019, sports took 20 per cent of total viewership, led by IPL viewers, which has dropped to two per cent this year during week 13 to 16, according to BARC-Nielsen report.

These sports viewers have moved to GECs, movies and news genres. GEC saw a rise from 38 per cent in 2019 to 40 per cent in 2020. News saw a rise from nine per cent in 2019 to 19 per cent in 2020. Movies went from 21 per cent in 2019 to 28 per cent in 2020.

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April 30, 2020
News continues to be consumption-driver despite a fall in BARC week 15

MUMBAI: Being the television consumption driver, the general news category has continued to grow by close to 200 per cent and business news by over 80 per cent in the week 15, says a joint report of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India – Nielsen India. However, the news broadcasters this week have fallen marginally in terms of viewership this week as compared to week 14.

The general news category in both English and Hindi languages has fallen by 10 per cent. On the contrary, business news in both English and Hindi languages registered a combined growth by over 16 per cent. The COVID period has given news channels an upper hand to gain viewership than other genres but has been failing to sustain its week-on-week performance and tumbled for the straight third week now.

Retaining its third position, India TV fell most of the top five Hindi news channels by over 11 per cent to 249,898 weekly impressions in week 15. Both Republic Bharat and Zee News declined by 10 per cent each in viewership this week. The former registered 244,655 weekly impressions, whereas the latter secured 242,763. Both the channels continued to retain their last week's fourth and fifth spots respectively.

Being the second most-watched news channel in week 15, ABP News tumbled over nine per cent to 267,044 weekly impressions. While Aaj Tak became the number one TV channel for a consecutive fourth week, as per BARC. It slumped by over five per cent to 350,766 weekly impressions this week. The channel doubled its viewership than peers during prime minister Narendra Modi’s half an hour nation address on 14 April while announcing the extension of the lockdown till 3 May.

English news channels reported a mixed performance in the current week as two news channels out of the top five registered substantial growth, while the other three continued with its decline trajectory.

NDTV24x7 reported a maximum growth by over 75 per cent to 494 weekly impressions in week 15. The channel bagged the fifth spot and its growth is meagre as compared to peers in impressions but the channel certainly has improved its week-on-week performance. Similarly, India Today for the first time, so far this year, has become the second most-watched news channel in the nation. The channel saw a growth of over 20 per cent to 1031 weekly impressions in the current week.

In week 15, Times Now fell most in all of the top five English news channels by over 11 per cent to 815 weekly impressions. The channel has slipped to the third rank from second for the first time so far this year. Continuing to be at number one spot, Republic TV also tumbled marginally by over seven per cent to 1755 impressions week-on-week. Zee Media’s WION retaining its fourth spot has fallen by over four per cent to 600 weekly impressions in the current week of BARC.

As India's economy to be impacted most with the extended COVID-19 situation, viewers flock to watch the business news channels. After general news, it's business news category driving the television content consumption most, points out the fifth edition of BARC and Nielsen India report.

Network18’s both English and Hindi language general news channels failed to get featured in the list of the top five most-watched news channels this week, however, its CNBC cluster has a different story to say altogether. CNBC-TV18, the English business news channel of Network18, reported growth by over 15 per cent to 452 weekly impressions in week 15, whereas the Hindi business news channel – CNBC Awaaz – advanced by over 24 per cent to 2172 weekly impressions in the current week.

Times Network’s English business news channel ET Now, trailing behind CNBC-TV18, registered a growth by 13 per cent to 235 weekly impressions in week 15. While Zee Business, a Hindi business news channel, reported a growth of around eight per cent to 1771 weekly impressions in the current week.

BARC India chief executive officer Sunil Lulla while presenting the fifth edition of BARC-Nielsen joint report had said: “Viewers flocked to watch news more than any other genre post the lockdown was announced by prime minister Narendra Modi on 24 March amid COVID-19 pandemic.”

BARC-Nielsen India has been coming up with television and digital consumption report every week. The report compares the current lockdown period to week two to four (11-31 January) of BARC, which is termed as pre-COVID period.

April 24, 2020
DD National, Sun TV & Zee Biskope see viewership growth across genres

BENGALURU: Week 13 of 2020 was a peak week in terms of television viewership which had climbed to an all-time high. Viewership fell in week 14 of 2020, but seems to have recovered a bit in week 15 of 2020 (Saturday, 11 April 2020 to Friday, 17 April 2020, week under review). Towards the mid-end of Week 12 of 2020 was when the Indian COVID-19 lockdown happened (25 March 2020), but events such as the Janta curfew happened at the start of week 12. Hence, week 12 can be considered the first week of the Indian COVID-19 lockdown. Television viewing habits and viewership have changed completely during the lockdown period in the country.

Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) data for week 15 of 2020 reveals that only one of the nine channels that were present in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels Across Genres on All Platforms, on pay platform and free platform in weeks 13, 14 and 15 of 2020 have seen viewership growth in week on week (w-o-w) to week 15 as compared to the peak week. Pubcaster network Doordarshan’s (DD) flagship channel DD National saw viewership grow 21.4 per cent in week 14 of 2020 as compared to week 13 and saw it grow further in week 15 by 38.2 per cent vis-à-vis week 14 in BARC’s weekly across genres lists on all platforms. The most widely available terrestrial channel in the country saw viewership grow 68 per cent in week 15 as compared to week 13 in BARC’s weekly across genres lists on all platforms. The rerun of the mythology shows Ramayan and Mahabharat and a number of classics from the 80’s and 90’s of the previous century have helped two channels of DD grow viewership tremendously.

Top 10 channels across genres on all platforms

Nine channels have appeared in BARC’s weekly across genres lists on all platforms during all the three weeks under consideration here. The only exception was the Sun Network’s Tamil movies channel KTV, which exited in BARC’s weekly across genres lists on all platforms in week 14 of 2020, to be replaced by Viacom18’s Kids channel Nick.

Sun TV Network’s flagship Tamil channel Sun TV saw viewership decline in week 14 by19.4 per cent as compared to week 13 of 2020, but then climb again strongly in week 15 by 48 per cent as compared to week 13.

Two channels, each from DD, Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) and one channel each from Enterr 10 Television, Star India, Sun Tv Network and Viacom18, were present in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels Across Genres on All Platforms in week 25 of 2020. Five of the channels were Hindi GECs; there were two Hindi movie channels and there was one channel each from the kids, Tamil and Telugu genres present in the list in week 15 of 2020.

Please refer to the chart below

Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres

In BARC’s weekly lists of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres for weeks 13, 14 and 15 of 2020, DD National was the only channel that saw w-o-w growth in weeks 14 and 15 as compared to week 13 of 2020.

Nine of the channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres have been the same in weeks 13, 14 and 15 of 2020 with a shuffling of ranks. The only change was when KTV exited the list in week 15 of 2020 to be replaced by its network’s sibling Telugu GEC Gemini TV.

Three channels each from the Hindi movies and Telugu genres, two channels from the Hindi GEC genre and one channel each from the kids and Tamil
genre made up BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres in week 15 of 2020. Two channels each from SPN, Star, Sun and Viacom 18 (one from Viacom18 and one from Eenadu TV group in which Viacom18’s majority owner Network18 has a stake) and one channel each from DD and Zee were present in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres.

Please refer to the charts below:

Top 10 Free-to-Air Channels Across Genres

In the case of BARC’s weekly lists of Top 10 Free-to-Air Channels Across Genres, it was again DD National that maintained its w-o-w growth in weeks 14 and 15 as compared to week 13 of 2020. Further, Zeel’sBhohpuri cinema channel Zee Biskope also showed growth during week 15 vis-à-vis week 13, but it had seen a viewership drop in week 14 as compared to week 13 of 2020.

Four Hindi GECs’, three channels from the Hindi Movies, two channels from the Bhojpuri genre and one channel from the Youth genre comprised BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free-to-Air Channels Across Genres in week 15 of 2020. There were three channels each from Enterr 10 Television and Zeel and two channels each from B4U and DD networks in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free-to-Air Channels Across Genres during the week under review.

Here also, nine of the channels were present during the three weeks under consideration in this paper, but again with some shuffling of ranks. The India Today group’s Hindi News channel AajTakexited the list in week 14 to be replaced by DD’s Hindi GEC DD Bharati.

Please refer to the charts below:

April 24, 2020
After a week’s gap, India Today reclaims top spot in megacities in BARC week 15

MUMBAI: Almost after a week’s gap, TV Today Network’s English news channel India Today has again become a most-watched channel in the megacities. The channel achieved this feat of being number one with 12 per cent in week 13 of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India.

India Today has grown by around 30 per cent to 697,000 impressions in megacities among NCCS 22+ male AB in week 15 as compared to 351,000 impressions in the last week. However, the channel has clinched the second-best position in the all India NCCS 22 plus male AB category

In 22 plus male AB category megacities, Republic TV stood at second position with growth by over 26 per cent to 617,000 impressions this week from 571,000 in the last week.

Republic TV has been leading the chart in both India and megacities in terms of viewership in the two-plus category, according to BARC. In the same category, Times Now, at the third spot, has garnered 333, 000 impressions, followed by WION at the fourth position with 269,000 impressions

The viewership of news channels has grown exponentially in recent weeks due to the COVID-19 situation. Moreover, except news, all other genres have stopped producing fresh content, which could be termed one of the reasons for the rise in the viewership of news broadcasters.

April 23, 2020
Megacities see reach, ATS growth in COVID-19 week 5

MUMBAI: Megacities like Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore have grown during week 5 of COVID-19 driven by both reach and ATS, as per latest data from BARC and Nielsen. ATS for Mumbai has grown the most by 1 hour 42 minutes (39 per cent growth).

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Megacities also showed growth in GECs except for Kolkata. Consistent growth was witnessed across the Hindi-speaking market over the southern market in week 15 (COVID week 5).

Prime-time, as well as non-prime time, registered growth. While news and movies continued to grow, genre-wise, movies saw increased viewership.

The news genre saw two-fold growth in the current week with 198 per cent followed by business news and movies. News grew to 16 per cent from seven per cent in the last few weeks as compared to the pre-COVID period

Growth in movie viewership is coming largely from pay platforms across urban and rural market (82 per cent, 69 per cent), respectively

April 23, 2020
Despite re-runs, sports broadcasters continue winning streak in week 14 of BARC

MUMBAI: With no live sports across the globe, sports broadcasters have been trying alternatives to keep sports enthusiasts engaged by showing the re-runs of archived historic matches of cricket, wrestling, kabbadi and football. This, indeed, has helped sports channels to gain traction, as per the last four-week data of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India.

Though the impressions on these channels are not as good as when live sports matches are broadcasted, sports have definitely turned nostalgic to watch, be it the broadcasting of WWE’s legendary fights of veterans or cricket world cup matches aired by Star Sports.
BARC’s week 11-14 has gradually seen a rise-fall-rise in viewership pattern with week 13 (28 March-3 April) gaining most out of all four. As per the third edition of crisis consumption joint report of BARC-Nielsen, “Sports had surged by 21 per cent in week 13 over the last week on the back of telecast of classic India cricket matches & WWE.”

Star India is the official broadcaster to telecast the re-runs of historic matches, whereas WWE is a property of Sony Pictures Network. Week 14 (4-10 April) of BARC has seen marginal dip by over three per cent in terms of weekly impressions as compared to week 13. The current week is the second-highest in viewership during COVID-19 period all thanks to the re-runs of Cricket and WWE matches.

The first two weeks (Week 11 and 12) were weak for sports broadcasters to garner eyeballs as they were still grappling with the challenges of what to show exactly and how to keep the audience engaged. However, in the following week, Star Sports came up with nostalgic India versus Pakistan world cup matches and Sony put their weight behind a new show called ‘WWE Blockbusters’, a re-run.

Week 12 could be termed as a weakest week among all four weeks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sports channels during this week fell by around 14 per cent as compared to week 11, but immediately picked up in the following week by gaining at least 32 per cent in terms of weekly impressions.
The fourth edition of the crisis consumption joint report of BARC-Nielsen India says: “Wrestlemania-20 along with Indo-Pak classics led to highest viewership for sports genre during COVID-19 period.” The report shows a week 14 grew by five per cent to 10.3 billion viewing minutes as compared to 9.8 billion viewing minutes in week 13 in India 2 plus category during COVID-18 period.

COVID-19 has not only halted live sports but also the production of film and TV content. Dominating the re-run game, Doordarshan has been leading the pack by bringing back all 90’s hit shows along with two mythological shows such as Mahabharat and Ramayana. Viewers are flocking to TV channels to get nostalgic by watching re-runs.

April 18, 2020
Twitter banter between India Today and Republic TV on viewership

MUMBAI: Every news channel wants to be number one, and it, of course, tries to find some metrics to declare itself as most-watched. This viewership battle has turned into a Twitter banter between two English news channels: India Today and Republic TV.

The banter started with India Today mocking Republic TV for its ‘For The Record’ tag, wherein the latter has been boasting about its viewership gain for being a leader so far this year than its peers in all India males-22-plus-individuals’ category, as per BARC.

India Today shared two promos on its Twitter handle with the caption ‘For The Record’. The first promo, which is a 21-second video, has a gramophone playing audio as similar to Republic TV’s editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami’s voice.

The second promo is even more creative, wherein an image of a cracked gramophone disc, which also called as a record, is shown with Republic TV’s name below it. India Today mocking its rival praised itself with the tagline: ‘A news channel (India Today) that doesn’t sound like a broken record’.

Retaliating to the mockery, Republic TV in its eighth part of ‘For The Record’ edition took a veiled dig at India Today quoting BARC’s data tweeted: “Republic requests SMALLER channels not to fudge numbers when BARC official data is available publicly.”

The record being the keyword here, India Today tried to play with the word and portrayed Republic TV as ‘Broken Record’ in its promo. Post week 14 numbers were out, the former ran a campaign of it being the most-watched news channel with a tag line ‘Where It Matters’, it indirectly touted the latter with its viewership growth in megacities TG males between week 12- 14, as per BARC.

April 18, 2020
Television viewership peters down slightly in Week 14

BENGALURU: The first three weeks of Indian COVID-19 lockdown have expanded television viewership in India to an extent that was probably never imagined earlier. As many average Indian citizens, bound by the lockdown within the confines of their homes, sought to comfort their minds with news of what was happening within the country and the world and with the pseudo realism that Movies provide, their television viewership habits changed week-on-week. Here’s how.

Viewership

In the third week of the Indian COVID-19 lockdown (week 14 of 2020, Saturday, 4 April 2020 to 11 April 2020), television viewership at 1.223 trillion minutes was 37.9 per cent higher when compared to the average of Weeks 2 to 4 of 2020, or the pre-COVID-19 period according to joint Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) Nielsen reports. But then, this was 3.4 per cent lower than the 1.266 trillion minutes of the previous week, despite the same average daily reach of 627 million television viewers. Hence, the average time spent was obviously lower at 4 hours 38 minutes in Week 14 of 2020 as compared to the 4 hours and 48 minutes that television viewers spent in Week13.

As is obvious from the chart below, TV viewership has grown like never before during the lockdown week, but week 14 data shows that week-on-week, viewership in Week 14 of 2020 is slightly lower than the previous week, which has so far seen numbers peak at high levels. Please refer to the chart below:

Effect on genres

News, which until the COVID-19 period had seven per cent share of viewership, saw it triple to 21per cent in Week 12, or the first week of the Covid-19 Lockdown in India. Though news is still the leader in terms of growth in viewership, the growth of the genre in relation to the Pre-Covid-19 period has been lower in Weeks 13 and 14 as compared to Week 12 of 2020. Business news also seemed to be following the trends of its larger sibling, news. The other seven genres have seen growth in Weeks 13 and 14 vis-à-vis the Pre-Covid-19 Period averages.

Since no fresh content was being produced, GECs’ saw the smallest growth during the first three weeks of the Covid-19 lockdown. It must be noted that GECs’ are the largest genre in terms of viewership, so the 9per cent and 7per cent growth in Weeks 13 and 14 respectively versus the Pre-Covid-19 are good numbers.

In the Pre-Covid-19 Period, Hindi GECs’ had a 32per cent share of viewership of the Hindi speaking market of HSM. Hindi GEC’s in the urban Hindi speaking market or HSM (U) which reduced to 29per cent in Week 14. Despite this Hindi GECs’ in HSM (U) attained an all-time high of 4 billion impressions. HSM (U) viewership grew by 26per cent in Week 14 in relation to the average of the Pre-Covid-19 Period. This growth could be attributed mainly to GECs’ resorting to airing old classics. The major growth drivers of the genre were pubcasterDoordarshan’s GECs’ DD National and DD Bharti which saw the return of programmes such as Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan and B R Chopra’s Mahabharat, as well as soaps like Dekh Bhai Dekh, Byomkesh Bakshi, Shaktimaan, ShrimanShrimati, Buniyaad and Circus. The other GECs’ generally saw flat growth according to BARC.

Please refer to the figure below:

GECs’ in South India continued to lead viewership in Week 14 of 2020, but with a lower share as compared to the pre-COVID-19 period. The movies and news genres saw higher viewership in Week 14 as compared to the Pre-Covid-19 Period. Please refer to the chart below:

Who was watching television when?

Growth in viewership continued to be led by the younger generation –the 2-14-years age groups followed by the 15-21 and the 31-40-years age groups as well as in the week preceding (Week 11) the lockdown and during the three weeks of the lockdown (Weeks 12, 13 and 14 of 2020). However, growth was lower amongst all age groups in Week 14 of 2020 as compared to Week 13 with respect to the Pre-Covid-19 Period.

Please refer to the figure below:

Since people spent time at home, growth in time spent in minutes for watching television was higher among males. The change was slightly lower in Week 14 of 2020 as compared to Week 13 for males and females with viewership of both the weeks in relation to the Average of the Pre-Covid-19 Period. Please refer to the chart below:

A BARC Nielsen Report dated 16 April 2020 said that BARC’s NCCS A saw the highest growth during the three weeks of the lockdown as well as Week 11 of 2020 as compared to the average of the Pre-Covid-19 Period. NCCS A has seen the highest growth in Weeks 12, 13 and 14, with growth peaking in Week 13 of 2020 and then petering slightly in Week 14 of 2020. Please refer to the chart below.

Non-primetime continued to be a growth driver of Television viewership in Week 14. While Full Day All India Television viewership grew 38per cent in Week 14 as compared to the Pre-Covid-19 Period, Rural India viewership growth was driven by non-Primetime viewership. Primetime viewership grew 10per cent in Urban India, while it remained stable in Rural India.

News is event driven. Week 15 of 2020 has seen the Covid-19 lockdown in India being extended to 3 May 2020. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech on 14 April 2020 announcing the extension of the lockdown which was aired on 199 channels garnered the highest ratings at 3,937.3 million viewing minutes as compared to his previous 3 addresses to the nation on the Covid-19 crisis.

April 18, 2020