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  • Rishtey enters urban GECs list, dethrones &TV in BARC week 11

    Rishtey enters urban GECs list, dethrones &TV in BARC week 11

    MUMBAI: Zee Anmol emerged as the leader pushing down Star Bharat to the second position in the Hindi GEC (U+R) region according to Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) all India data for week 11 of 2018.

    Rishtey made an entry pushing down &TV in GEC urban market this week. Moreover, Star Plus made an entry in the market securing the tenth position, dethroning Sony entertainment television this week in GEC rural markets as compared to the previous week.

    Hindi GEC (U+R)

    Zee Anmol garnered the top slot this week with 810969 impressions (000s). Star Bharat stood at second position with 740541 impressions (000s). Sony Pal retained its third position with 647929 impressions (000s).

    Star Utsav and Zee TV swapped their fourth and fifth positions with 598597 impressions (000s) and 576059 impressions (000s) respectively. Colors retained its sixth position with 547056 impressions (000s). Rishtey and Sony entertainment television exchanged their seventh and eighth positions with 450671 impressions (000s) and 450604 impressions (000s) respectively.

    Star Plus and Sony Sab retained their ninth and tenth positions with 437113 impressions (000s)and 387085 impressions (000s) respectively. 

    Hindi Rural GEC

    Zee Anmol and Sony Pal retained their first and second positions with 591613 impressions (000s) and 432048 impressions (000s). Star Bharat and Star Bharat exchanged their third and fourth positions as compared to the previous week with 421185 impressions (000s) and 379565 impressions (000s) respectively. Rishtey retained its fifth position with 313873 impressions (000s).

    Dangal TV, Big Magic and Zee TV stood at sixth, seventh and eighth positions respectively with 236263 impressions (000s), 224384 impressions (000s) and 216699 impressions (000s). Colors retained its ninth position with 144785 impressions (000s).

    Star Plus made an entry in the market securing the tenth position, dethroning Sony with 126542 impressions (000s).

    Hindi Urban GEC

    In urban GEC, Colors retained its leadership position with 402271 impressions (000s). Star Bharat and Zee TV swapped their second and third positions with 360976 impressions (000s) and 379565 impressions (000s) respectively. Sony Entertainment Television retained its third position with 313873 impressions (000s).

    Star Plus and Sony Sab stood at fourth and fifth positions with 310570 impressions (000s) and 301079 impressions (000s) respectively. Sony Pal retained its sixth position with 215880 impressions (000s).

    Zee Anmol and Star Utsav stood at eighth and ninth positions with 184243 impressions (000s) and 177411 impressions (000s) respectively. Rishtey made an entry with 136797 impressions (000s) by pushing &TV out of the chart.

    Also Read:

    Star Bharat leads Hindi GEC (U+R) in BARC week 52

    Star Bharat leads Hindi GEC (U+R) in week 2 of BARC ratings

  • BARC gets ‘Great Place to Work’ certification

    BARC gets ‘Great Place to Work’ certification

    MUMBAI: BARC India has been certified as ‘Great Place to Work’ for cultivating a culture of high trust and performance.

    The certification has been provided by Great Place to Work Institute, which is recognised for its rigorous and objective methodology for identifying and defining great workplaces across business, academia and government organisations. 

    “The fact that BARC India in its third year of its operations has been able to create an environment of happy and motivated workforce is a matter of great pride. In my experience, a great place to work is where the sum is larger than the parts. This is so true for BARC India where we brought and built talent with diverse and varied cultural backgrounds. This was quite a task when there was an absence of skilled and ready workforce,” said BARC India CEO Partho Dasgupta.

    According to the ‘Great Place to Work’ certification, BARC India has scored high on trust and culture indices.

    “This definitely is a reflection of the good work that all of us at BARC India have been doing over the past three years. At BARC India, we believe in cultivating a culture of ownership and belongingness amongst employees. This has led to high performance and trust. This culture is influenced by the leaders who provide strategic direction to all the employees,” added BARC India chief people officer Manashi Kumar.

  • DTH focus shifts to ARPU from subscriber numbers

    DTH focus shifts to ARPU from subscriber numbers

    MUMBAI: In the last six months, the direct-to-home (DTH) industry has faced lots of challenges. The industry saw big DTH players consolidate, shutting down of a player and fights between DTH operators and broadcasters.

    In the early days, customer acquisition was the key for most distribution platform operators but, currently, their eyes are set on cost-efficiencies.

    An industry source tells Indiantelevision.com, “The biggest worry in the market right now is the elephant in the room, which is Reliance Jio. In the last three quarters, DTH growth has been very muted and is not growing as actively as it should have. The challenge for DTH players right now is pushing up the average revenue per user (ARPU) and push high definition (HD) subscription. Tata Sky, for instance, is pushing HD channels to 110 and trying to create HD packs. It is not trying to increase the subscriber base but planning towards increasing the ARPU.”

    Tata Sky came up with a Make My HD pack for as low as Rs 30 per month and a regional HD Access pack at Rs 50 per month for users subscribed to regional SD channels. The channel targeted the south market with a special pack at Rs 290. Dish TV campaigned for HD in all homes by removing the access fee on it and advertising a cost as low as Rs 169 per month (excluding taxes). Countering DD FreeDish, the oldest DTH player also introduced a free to air (FTA) pack with a price translating to Rs 32 a month.

    After more than a year of twists and turns, Dish TV and Videocon d2h are set to formalise a merger to create India’s largest DTH company valued at around $2.4 billion and the world’s second largest in terms of subscribers with 29 million, just behind AT&T’s DirecTV. According to the original plan, Dish TV shareholders will own 55.4 per cent in the combined entity, to be named Dish TV Videocon, while Videocon d2h shareholders will hold 44.6 per cent in the company.

    “After the deal, there will be group content deals since they are thrice strong with Dish TV, Videocon d2h and Siti Cable. If they go to the broadcaster for the content deal, the pricing leverage will be much higher,” the source adds.

    India accounted for 65 per cent of revenue for regional pay-TV channel groups in 2017, led by large local channel businesses owned and operated by 21st Century Fox, Sony and Viacom as per a Media Partners Asia (MPA) report.

    “The whole landscape is undergoing a change. The cable operators are facing many challenges and are punching back hard. They are focussing on growing ARPUs from the rural market in phase 3 and 4 and the subscriber base. ARPU in the rural market is still very low which is around Rs 40-45. If they make it equal to urban around Rs 70-75 with a subscriber base of 1 million, then also it will give them an extra Rs 35 million every month. So everyone is working on a strategy, but they are not saying it upfront,” the source points out.

    Videocon d2h saw ARPU at Rs 208 for Q3 2018 (September – December 2017), higher than the Rs 212 in the previous quarter. Dish TV’s ARPU stood at Rs 144 for the same quarter, lower than Rs 148 in the trailing quarter. The highest ARPU among listed companies was with Airtel Digital TV with Rs 233.x

    Dish TV CMD Jawahar Goel says that the industry is on the pay channels’ side. “The MSOs have different pricing in the market. Whereas for DTH it is a very steep charge and this is the reason for the shutdown of Reliance BIG TV,” he says.

    KCCL CEO Shaji Mathews says that if DTH had been launched in India in the year 1997 as envisaged by some of the leading media companies, cable TV would have been a minority player today. “Ever since its launch half a decade later, DTH thrived on the deficiencies in analog cable. Another decade later when digitisation commenced, again DTH pitched to take a share from cable and become the majority player. However, cable withstood the challenge and retained its position at the end of 2017,” he says.

    The scenario emerging is that of media players consolidating to face the challenge from telecom. However, Mathews says that in this fight, historically, cable TV has been the partner that media companies can rely upon. “The polarisation is evident from the exit of non-media Videocon and Rcom, though the latter has other reasons also,” he highlights.

    Media Partners Asia VP Mihir Shah shows two reasons for growth in the industry. “As BARC continues expanding its coverage, it has pushed up the value of rural reach for broadcasters, which today is primarily delivered through DTH. With this merger, the DTH market has consolidated with top three players accounting for 90 per cent share of the paying subscriber base. These two structural developments will improve DTH’s subscriber economics in the coming year,” he said. “Warburg Pincus’ investment in Airtel Digital last year and now Dish TV-Videocon d2h merger going through serves as a confident booster for the sector.”

    The active DTH subscriber base in India is over 50 million as of December 2017. Sun Direct is a major DTH player in the south holding about 40 per cent of the area. Southern subscribers also make up 97 per cent of its total. Sun Direct took up an HEVC media solution from Harmonic to increase its HD channel number to 80 recently.

    On 16 February, Star had issued a disconnection notice to Bharti Telemedia for non-signing of the subscription agreement, non-payment of subscription fees and non-submission of subscribers reports. However, even before the broadcaster gave effect to its disconnection notice, the DTH operator decided to temporarily discontinue Star India channels from its subscription packs from 8 March as it had not been able to arrive at mutually acceptable terms with the broadcaster.

    “Due to failure to arrive at mutually acceptable terms with Star India, with effect from 8 March 2018, all Star network channels will be temporarily discontinued from your packs,” the DTH operator informed its subscribers.

    In the latest update, the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) has asked Star India and Airtel DTH to negotiate and enter into an agreement. The tribunal also directed the DTH operator to pay all lawful dues in accordance with the agreement by the due date as indicated in Star’s letter dated 7 March, except the amount of Rs 9.8 crore.

    As competition within the industry as well as the fight for the pie continues with MSOs, DTH players will have to focus on giving value add at reasonable rates. Increasing ARPUs will also enable the red to turn black on the company balance sheet, which is what most of them are currently sweating about.

    Also read:

    TDSAT tells Airtel DTH, Star to negotiate

    Airtel Digital TV disconnects Star India channels

    Madras HC gives split verdict in Star India versus TRAI case

     

  • Lone non-Hindi Sun TV rules across channels list

    Lone non-Hindi Sun TV rules across channels list

    BENGALURU: Numero uno is the position that Sun TV holds in Broadcast Audience Research Council’s (BARC) weekly television ratings for the top 10 channels across genre across in India for age 2+ almost throughout the year. The only exception so far has been during the IPL weeks that the highly cricket hungry Indians consume the dominant channel that airs that mega event. Last year it was Sony Max. Now back to Sun TV – besides the across genre weekly lists, the channel has headed BARC’s weekly ratings for top 5 Tamil channels in the Tamil Nadu/Puducherry markets. This was also the case in week 9 of 2018 (Saturday, 24 February 2018 to Friday, 2 March 2018) – as usual, the Sun TV Network’s flagship Tamil GEC channel topped BARC’s list of top 10 channels across genre, as well as BARC’s list of top 5 Tamil channels. And also, as has been a norm, all the five top Tamil programmes during primetime in week 9 of 2018 were aired on Sun TV. But at the same time, the channel’s ratings have been dropping and the gap in ratings between it and the second-ranked channel in the top 10 across genre channels has been narrowing.

    Overall, the combined ratings of the top 10 channels across genre declined by about 2 per cent in week 9 as compared to week 8 of 2018. One Tamil channel, two Hindi movies channel and seven Hindi GEC channels made up BARC’s list of top 10 channels across genre. Week 9 of 2018 has seen a bit of a shakeup of sorts for BARC’s list of top 10 channels across genre. Three channels each from Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and Star India, two channels from Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) and one channel each from the Sun TV Network and Network 18 made up the list of the top 10 channels across genre during the week under review.

    As mentioned above, Sun TV topped the across genre list, though with lower ratings of 895.453 million weekly impressions in week 9 of 2018 as compared to the previous week’s 958.551 million weekly impressions. Sun TV was followed by SPN’s women-focused FTA Hindi GEC Sony Pal which climbed up two ranks with 757.432 million weekly impressions.  The channel had scored 682.137 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Sony Pal was also ranked one in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GEC channels list for week 9 of 2018 in the all India urban (U) and rural (R) Hindi speaking markets (HSM). The long-running crime show CID on Sony Pal was among the top 5 Hindi programmes and Balveer and Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah were also among the top 5 Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in HSM (R).

    Trailing very close behind Sony Pal at third rank with a difference of just 4000 weekly impressions in week 9 of 2018 was Star India’s FTA Hindi GEC Star Bharat with 757.428 million weekly impressions. Star Bharat was ranked second in the top 10 Hindi GEC channels in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) and was ranked third in HSM (R) in the week under review. Star Bharat was ranked second in the top 10 channels across genre in the previous week with 762.407 million weekly impressions.

    At fourth rank in week 9 of 2018 was Zeel’s FTA Hindi GEC Zee Anmol with 686.766 million weekly impressions as compared to the previous week’s third rank and 715.586 million weekly impressions. The Balaji Telefilms produced family soap Kumkum Bhagya on Zee Anmol was among the top 5 Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R). Another soap Ganga that had been aired on the channel was among the top 5 Hindi GEC programmes in HSM (R).

    SPN’s Hindi Movies channel Sony Max climbed up to fifth place in week 9 of 2018 with 562.587 million weekly impressions. The channel had been ranked tenth in the list with 507.975 million weekly impressions in week 8 of 2018. The channel also topped BARC’s lists of top 5 Hindi movies channels in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) and was ranked fifth in HSM (R). The magnum opus Bahubali – The Beginning was among the top five Hindi movies programmes during primetime in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) in week 9 of 2018. Other movies that were aired on Sony Max – Sultan and Kanchana 2 were among the top 5 Hindi movies programmes HSM (U) during the week under review.

    Zeel’s Hindi GEC Zee TV was ranked 6 in week 9 of 2018 with 551.884 million weekly impressions as compared to the previous week’s rank 5 and viewership of 600.766 million weekly impressions. Kundali Bhagya, a spinoff of Kumkum Bhagya, which also aired on the channel, topped the list of top 5 Hindi GEC programmes in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U). Kundali Bhagya, which also aired in Zee TV, was among the top 5 Hindi GEC programmes in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U).

    Another Star India FTA Hindi GEC channel Star Utsav climbed up a rank to seventh place in week 9 of 2018 with 536.603 million weekly impressions as compared to the previous week’s 543.582 million weekly impressions. Network 18’s flagship Hindi GEC Colors was ranked eighth with 508.570 million weekly impressions as compared to the previous week’s rank six and 574.408 million weekly impressions.

    Another SPN Hindi movies channel Sony Wah, which entered the top 10 channels across genre list was ranked ninth in week 9 of 2018 with 592.512 million weekly impressions. Sony Wah was ranked first in HSM (R), ranked second in HSM (U+R) and ranked fifth in HSM (U) lists for top 5 Hindi movies channels in week 9 of 2018. Hindi feature film Yevadu 2 was among the top five Hindi movies programmes during primetime in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) and HSM (R). Another HFF – Shivaji the Boss, which was aired on the channel, was also among the top 5 Hindi movies programmes during primetime in week 9 of 2018 in HSM (R).

    Star India’s flagship Hindi GEC Star Plus was ranked tenth in week 9 of 2018 with 497.433 million weekly impressions as compared to the previous week’s rank 7 and 573.432 million weekly impressions. Another Balaji Telefilms produced soap – Yeh Hai Mohabbatein, which aired on Star Plus, was among the top 5 Hindi GEC’s in HSM (U) during the week. Star Plus was also ranked third in HSM (U) during the week.

    Also Read :

    ETV Telugu re-enters across genre list

    Star Bharat continues to top Hindi GECs across genres

    Sony Max returns to top-10 channels in across genre list

  • BARC partners Airtel Digital TV for return path data

    BARC partners Airtel Digital TV for return path data

    MUMBAI: Taking a big step towards using return path data (RPD) for TV viewership measurement, BARC India has tied up with Airtel Digital TV, Airtel’s DTH arm, for including its subscriber homes into the BARC India RPD panel. This partnership will provide a fillip to BARC India’s plan of scaling up panel homes to multiples of the mandated 50,000.

    RPD is used globally for collecting viewership data. However, BARC India’s plan to integrate it into the TV viewership currency is a global first. Random selection will be undertaken among the selected RPD homes to include them in the currency panel for the overall Airtel Digital TV universe share in the TV ecosystem.

    In October last year, BARC India had signed on multi system operator DEN Networks for measuring TV viewership using RPD. By tying up with Airtel Digital TV, BARC India has added a significant DTH subscriber base to its proposed RPD panel. It will use a portion of Airtel Digital TV’s subscriber base to measure TV viewership via RPD.

    The move will not only make BARC India data more robust but will also help address the issue of panel home tampering.

    “Our partnership with Airtel Digital TV will strengthen our RPD rollout plan. Panel home expansion is absolutely critical for us considering the diversity in the country which is visible even in the way TV content is consumed. RPD, will give the industry a cost-effective way of expanding panel home size. The distribution platform owners too will benefit with RPD. It will give them a better understanding into what their subscribers are consuming on TV. This will help the industry at large,” said BARC India CBO Romil Ramgarhia.

    Bharti Airtel DTH CEO Sunil Taldar said, “We are pleased to partner BARC India and support their endeavour of compiling robust TV viewership insights. A credible resource like this will benefit the entire ecosystem including content producers, marketers and help in enhancing the experience for customers.”
     

  • Women contribute significantly to Hindi news viewership: BARC

    Women contribute significantly to Hindi news viewership: BARC

    MUMBAI:  The ongoing FICCI Frames 2018 saw a session titled ‘The Future of TV’ wherein Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) CEO Partho Dasgupta laid down numbers and research to indicate that the future of television is bright. Contrary to general perception, BARC research shows that women made a significant contribution to the Hindi news genre in 2017.

    During the time of demonetisation in 2016 and during week 45, the viewership ratings grew by 56 per cent with the overall 52 per cent male viewership and 62 per cent female viewership. Meanwhile, on 31 December when the news Rastra Ke Naam Sandesh was being aired, the viewership grew by 3.5 times.

    The viewership also grew by 3.2 times during the UP elections, whereas the Gujarat/Himachal Pradesh elections garnered fewer eyeballs. Dasgupta states that Hindi content rules television. Hindi general entertainment channels (GEC) had reached 499 million in a week in 2017. Hindi movies, music, news and kids among others garnered positions reaching up to 471 million, 319 million, 309 million and 255 million viewers each week respectively in 2017.

    The catch as to why Hindi content is highly watched is because viewers are dazzled by the lavish and ‘feel good’ settings. Mahasangams grab more eyeballs than marriages and jail tracks in GECs. Such topics boost viewership by 20 per cent over the previous one. Marriage and jail tracks lead to 13 per cent and 15 per cent hike in the ratings respectively.

    An interesting aspect was that total viewership during festival holidays saw higher spike in the Southern market while the Hindi market maintains stability. On public holidays, viewership shoots up in both regions.

    He also drove out misconceptions about who is responsible for the low depths low depths to which news TV in India has sunk. Journalists drive ratings with 25 per cent contribution, business heads or owners with 33 per cent and the viewers with 42 per cent. It clearly indicates that the viewers are the driving force for the decrease in viewership.

    Also Read :

    Broadcasters see positive future for TV in India

    M&E stakeholders need to collaborate for growth: Sudhanshu Vats

  • Star Bharat continues to top Hindi GECs across genres

    Star Bharat continues to top Hindi GECs across genres

    BENGALURU: During the first eight weeks of 2018 (Saturday, 30 December 2017 to Friday, 23 February 2018), honours have been divided equally by two Hindi free-to-air (FTA) GEC channels as far as topping Hindi GECs in Broadcast Audience Research Council’s (BARC) weekly lists of the top 10 television channels across genres goes. In weeks 1, 3, 4 and 5, it was Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) Hindi GEC channel Zee Anmol that was ranked second after the Sun TV Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV in BARC’s across genre list. In weeks 2, 6, 7 and now week 8 it is Star India Private Limited (Star India) Hindi GEC Star Bharat that was ranked second after Sun TV in the lists.

    As in the case during the past few weeks, seven Hindi GECs, of which four were FTA, and one channel each from the Hindi Movies, Tamil and Telugu channels made it to BARC’s list of top 10 channels across genre. Also, as in the case of the past few weeks, four Star India GECs’ – three Hindi and one Telugu; two Hindi GECs’ from Zeel; one FTA Hindi GEC and one Hindi movies channel from Sony Pictures Network India (SPN); and one GEC each from the Sun TV Network and Network18 comprised the top 10 channels across genres list for week 8 of 2018 (Saturday, 17 February 2018 to Friday, 23 February 2018).

    As mentioned above, Sun TV topped the across genre list in week 8 of 2018 with 985.551 million impressions. The channel also topped BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Tamil channels in the Tamil Nadu(TN)/Puducherry markets. All the top 5 Tamil programmes during primetime in these markets were aired on Sun TV during the week under review.

    Star Bharat was ranked second in BARC’s across genres list with slightly higher ratings at 762.407 million weekly impressions in week 8 of 2018 as compared to the previous week’s 755.591 million weekly impressions. The channel also topped BARC’s ranking of the top 10 Hindi GEC channels in the urban (U) and rural (R) Hindi speaking market (HSM) and was ranked second in HSM (U). Its soap Nimki Mukhiya was among the top 5 Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in HSM (U+R).  

    Zee Anmol was ranked third in the week under consideration with 715.586 million weekly impressions. The channel was ranked first in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GEC channels in HSM (R) and was ranked second in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GEC channels in HSM (U+R).

    The Balaji Telefilms-produced family soap Kumkum Bhagya that featured on the channel was ranked first in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in HSM (U+R) and HSM (R). Another programme that also featured on the channel in the HSM (R) list of top 5 programmes during primetime and was aired on Zee Anmol was Jamai Raja.

    In week 8 of 2018, SPN’s FTA women focused Hindi GEC Sony Pal was ranked fourth – the same as the previous week. The channel garnered 682.137 million weekly impressions in week 8 of 2018. Sony Pal was also ranked third in BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GEC channels in HSM (U+R) and was ranked second in HSM (R). Three programmes, Baalveer, Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah and CID, that were aired on Sony Pal were among the top 5 Hindi GEC programmes in HSM (R).

    At rank five in week 8 of 2018 was Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV (same rank as week 7) with higher ratings of 600.766 million weekly impressions as compared to 587.318 million weekly impressions in the previous week. Kumkum Bhagya that is also being aired on Zee TV and its spinoff Kundali Bhagya were amongst the top 5 Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in HSM (U+R) and HSM(U).

    Viacom18’s flagship Hindi GEC Colors was ranked sixth in week 8 of 2018 with 574.408 million weekly impressions. The channel topped BARC’s list of top 10 Hindi GEC channels in HSM (U). Shakti – Astitva Ke Ehsaas Ki that aired on the channel was among the top 5 Hindi GEC channels in HSM (U).

    Star India’s flagship Hindi GEC Star Plus climbed two ranks from last week’s ninth to seventh in week 8 of 2018 with 573.432 million weekly impressions. The channel had scored 522.697 million weekly impressions in week 7 of 2018. Star Plus was also ranked third among the top 10 Hindi GEC channels in HSM (U). The Balaji Telefilms-produced soap Yeh Hai Mohabbateinwas among BARC’s list of top 5 Hindi GEC programmes during primetime in HSM (U).

    Another Star India FTA Hindi GEC Star Utsav was ranked eighth in week 8 of 2018 in the across genres list with 543.482 million weekly impressions to the previous week’s 553.212 million weekly impressions. Star Utsav was ranked third in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 Hindi GEC’s in HSM (R).

    Star India’s flagship Telugu GEC Star Maa was ranked ninth in week 8 of 2018 in BARC’s across genre list with 538.662 million weekly impressions. In week 7 of 2018, the channel was ranked seventh with 561.696 million weekly impressions. The channel topped BARC’s list of top 5 Telugu channels in the Andhra Pradesh/Telangana market. Like the previous week, 4 of the top 5 Telugu programmes during primetime in the same market were aired on Star Maa.

    SPN’s Hindi Movies channel Sony Max was ranked tenth in week 18 of 2018 in BARC’s across genre list with 507.975 million weekly impressions, higher than the 501.759 million weekly impressions of week 7 of 2018. Sony Max topped BARC’s weekly list of top 5 Hindi movies channels during the week under consideration in HSM (U+R) and HSM (U) and the channel was amongst BARC’s list of top 5 Hindi movies channels in HSM (R).

    Also Read :

    ETV Telugu re-enters across genre list

    Sun TV, Star Maa only non-Hindi players in across genre list

    Star Bharat continues leading Hindi GECs across genres

  • News’ Nation’s Abhay Ojha among top-50 influential persons

    News’ Nation’s Abhay Ojha among top-50 influential persons

    MUMBAI: News Nation Network Pvt. Ltd. launched a National Hindi News Channel -News Nation in February 2013 with a basic premise of “ideal viewer connects”. The channel aims to address the ground realities and complexities of diverse and multi-layered India and demystify news into relevant absorbable facts. The channel’s ideology is to respect viewer’s intelligence and provide them with “News they can use”. Adding to the bouquet News Nation Network Pvt. Ltd. launched a regional Hindi News channel by the name of News State Uttar Pradesh/Uttarakhand in Feb 2014.  The differentiation of its regional offering stands out in the fact that it carries mostly regional news which is thoroughly covered to the level of every district of both the states. As per BARC ratings while the National Hindi News channel “News Nation” ranks amongst Top 5 , its regional channel “ News State UP/UK” has been No.1 in the twin states since many weeks. Speaking on the occasion Mr. Abhay K Ojha ,President – Sales & Marketing, shared his views in Q & A session.

    News Nation has completed 5 years – How was the journey so far?
    The journey till date is on the growth trajectory. Since the launch of the channel it has scaled up the ladder and today it is amongst Top 5 Hindi News channels. In terms of revenue also every year we have been growing steadily.

    With new Hindi news channel being launched in already cluttered Hindi News genre- How difficult was it then to make inroads into sales?
    We did not face much problem in establishing in the sales front.  The Product offering was different from all other existing Hindi News channels. Apart from Top 3 channels , most of the other news channels that time were me too product. We analyzed that programming and news delivery of all other channels were revolving around Top three channels only with no distinctive offerings. We, therefore, came with programmes  like Bharat Ek Khoj, Idea India ka, Khana Gana. These programs helped us create a brand identity and delivered good ratings.   

    Do you think TRPs are really that important for sales and what are your views on allegations of BARC panel homes tampering?
    TRPs do play a vital role in revenue because it gives an indication of ROI. With regards to tampering BARC authorities are competent enough to handle these issues and I am sure they are taking utmost care to ensure robustness of data, having said that there are also instances where data defies logic. 

    After 5 years how do you say that News Nation is different from other Hindi News channel?
    News Nation has not deviated from its Brand Promise. Today where one can see a clear tilt of every news channels towards a pro or against sentiment, News Nation stands as an observer and reports news as it is un-opinionated, unbiased. We respect the intelligence of viewers and provide them with news they can use. We still have no dedicated show on astrology, crime or religion. 

    Lately you have been facing strong competition from a couple of channels – How do you tackle that?
    We are focusing on our core strengths and assuring clients to look at value for their money. Evening Prime Time is one area where the concentration of audience is highest and if a broadcasters decides to reduce commercial FCT in these band ,their programming ratings might go up but break ratings tentatively will go down. Apart from these for some broadcasters a couple of bands in prime time delivers about 30-40 % of their entire viewership unlike News Nation which generally has an equal distribution of viewership.  

    News consumption is gradually becoming higher on 2nd screen i.e digital –What are your views on this and what advancements has News Nation made in the digital domain?
    Yes, eventually not only news but almost all content will see a higher rise in consumption on mobile. With the penetration of smart phones into smaller towns/rural and affordable data plans, this sector is poised for a massive growth. News Nation is already geared up for this, it has two websites www.newsnation.in (English) and www.newsstate.com( Hindi). It also has News Mobile App for these websites available on android and iOS. The mobile apps are equipped with latest GUI and some unique features like “Quicky”- The Quicky feature lets you watch news from 1 minute up to 5 minutes to save your time and also we are facilitating live audio news feature to our users. 

    Can you detail some future plans of News Nation Network and do you think that there still exists some space for any other Hindi News channel?
    News Nation is evaluating business potential in different genres , some expansions plans are already under consideration and will be able to share some news soon.

  • News consumption in South Indian languages during first 7 weeks of 2018

    News consumption in South Indian languages during first 7 weeks of 2018

    BENGALURU: Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has started publishing weekly viewership data of top 5 news channels in each of the four South Indian languages in their respective markets since week 1 of 2018 ( Saturday, 30 December 2017 to Friday  5 January 2018) in the public domain. There are a number of news channels in each of the four southern languages. At the time of writing of this paper, data is available up to week 7 of 2018 (Saturday, 10 February 2018 to Friday, 16 February 2018). The languages and respective markets are Tamil – Puducherry/Tamil Nadu (TN); Telugu – Andhra Pradesh (AP) /Telangana; Kannada – Karnataka; Malayalam – Kerala. The audience profile is urban and rural: NCCS 2+ individuals. Saturday, 30 December 2017 to Friday, 16 February 2018 is the period under consideration or review in this paper. The impressions mentioned are generally the combined weekly impressions of the top 5 news channels of each language or the combined weekly impressions of each channel during the period under consideration. Only those channels that have appeared in BARC’s lists of top 5 channels for each language have been considered in this paper, with a mention of the periodic entrants to the lists.

    Comparing news consumption in each of the markets, based on BARC’s combined weekly impressions data for top 5 news channels, news seems to be most watched in Telugu in the AP/Telangana and in Kannada in the Karnataka markets during the first seven weeks of 2018. Tamil news in the TN/Puducherry followed by Malayalam news in Kerala complete the four southern languages. 

    News viewership is generally event driven. The biggest event during the first seven weeks of 2018 was the announcement of the budget by Indian finance minister Arun Jaitley. Budget week or week 5 of 2018 (Saturday, 27 January 2018 to Friday, 2 February 2018) seems not to have made too much of an impact in terms of viewership growth for three of the four southern languages based on the sum of the weekly impressions of each week  for each language (combined weekly impressions)  While viewership of the top 5 news channels seems to have peaked in week 5 of 2018 for Kannada, it was the highest in week 6 (Saturday, 3 February 2018 to Friday 9 February 2018) in the case of Telugu and Malayalam. Combined viewership on the top 5 Tamil news channels seems to be declining – it had peaked in week 2 of 2018 (Saturday 6 January 2018 to Friday 12 January 2018).

    Please refer to the figure below for combined weekly impressions of the top 5 news channels in each of the four southern languages.

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    In all the 4 languages, the order in ranks in terms of viewership of the top 3 or 4 channels has generally been the same. Week 7 of 2018 has seen some shuffling and upsets in ranks in the southern news channels.

    Tamil News

    Four channels have appeared during all the first seven weeks of 2018 in BARC’s weekly list for top 5 Tamil News channels. Polimer News was numero uno during all the first seven weeks of 2018 in terms of impressions garnering 245,313 impressions during the period under consideration in this paper. Puthiya Thalaimurai was ranked second during the first seven weeks of 2017 in terms of total impressions during the period – the channel garnered 202,887 impressions. The channel was ranked second during weeks 1,2,4 5 and 6 and ranked third in weeks 3 and 7 of 2018. 

    Thanti TV was the third most watched Tamil News channel between weeks 1 and 7 of 2018. Thanti TV was ranked second in weeks 3 and 7 and ranked third in weeks 1,2,4 5 and 6. The channel had 193,582 impressions during the first seven weeks of 2018.

    News 7 Tamil was the fourth most watched Tamil News channel with 129,361 impressions during weeks 1 to 7 of 2018.  The channel was ranked fourth between weeks 1 to 4 and 6 and 7 of 2017. In week 5 of 2017 the channel was ranked fifth. Sun News was the fifth most watchedchannel with 96,478 impressions during the first seven weeks of 2018. The channel was present in 6 of 7 weeks of 2018 among BARC’s weekly lists of 5 most watched Tamil news channels. Sun News exited the list in week 7 of 2017 to be replaced by News18 Tamil Nadu. Whilst in the top 5 Tamil news channels list, Sun News had weekly impressions of 96,478.

    Telugu News

    Four channels have been among BARC’s top 5 Telugu news channels during all the first 7 weeks of 2018, but with some shuffling in ranks. The biggest upset seems to be TV9 Telugu, which dropped to rank 2 in week 7 of 2018 from the first rank that it had held during the first six weeks of 2018. The second ranked NTV Telugu clambered to the first rank in week 7 of 2018.

    During the period under review, TV9 Telugu was the most watched Telugu news channel with 345,162 impressions, followed by NTV Telugu with 293,500 impressions. TV 5 News was the third most watched Telugu News channel during the first 7 weeks of 2018 with 232,425 impressions. The channel was ranked third for the first 5 weeks of 2018, only to drop to rank 4 in week 6 and to drop even further to rank 5 in week 7 of 2018.

    V6 News was the fourth most watched Telugu News channel during the first 7 weeks of 2018 with 214,283 impressions. The channel’s viewership seems to be improving with time. It was ranked fifth during the first four weeks of 2018, it climbed to rank 4 in week 5 and to rank 3 in weeks 6 and 7 of 2018.

    Two channels –  ABN Andhra Jy oti and 10 TV were also present in BARC’s list of top 5 Telugu news channels for four and three weeks each respectively.

    Kannada News

    In the Kannada news space, the ranks in terms of viewership seem to be well defined. The first four weeks saw the same news channels appear in the same rank and order for the five ranks. From week 5 of 2018, rank five has been a contest between two channels.

    TV9 Kannada, Public TV, Suvarna News and News18 Kannada were the first, second, third and fourth most watched Kannada news channels respectively during the first 7 weeks of 2018. At first rank was TV9 Kannada with 484,427 impressions, followed by Public TV with 321,758 impressions during the period under consideration. Suvarna News was ranked third with 170,233 impressions followed by News 18 with 120,760 impressions.

    BTV was ranked fifth during weeks 1 to 4 and week 6 of 2018. It exited BARC’s top 5 list in weeks 5 and 7 of 2018 to be replaced by Dighvijay 24×7 News.

    Malayalam News

    Four channels have consistently appeared in BARC’s top 5 Malayalam news channels list during the first 7 weeks of 2018. Three of them – Asianet News (235,849 impressions), Manorama News (107,903 impressions) and Mathrubhumi News (82,472 impressions) have been ranked first, second and third respectively in BARC’s lists during the first 7 weeks of 2018. The fourth channel – News 18 Kerala (36,972 impressions) has seen a small upset – it had moved down to rank 5 in week 7 of 2017 from the fourth rank that it consistently held during the first six weeks of 2018. Media One TV was in BARC’s list for weeks 1, 2, 4, 5 at rank 5 of 2018. It has climbed up a rank to fourth in week 7 of 2018. Two other channels – Janam TV (week 3 of 2018) and People TV (week 6 of 2018) were present in BARC’s weekly lists of top 5 Malayalam News channels during the period under review).

    Also Read :

    Demystifying news television viewership in 2017

    No change in channels in across genres list in first week of 2018

  • We place a very high premium on fan experience: Turner’s Rohit Bhandari

    We place a very high premium on fan experience: Turner’s Rohit Bhandari

    MUMBAI: Competition has brought the best out of the TV channels operating in the English movie genre. With 14 channels vying for the crown, the genre has witnessed a flurry of changes in programming strategy and content aggregation as well as viewer-engagement manoeuvres. In the quest for curating quality content, increasing the fan base and expanding the target audience, channels are in the race to bag rights for premieres and beefing up their content library. The viewership for the genre has been reasonably steady through the year even as the yearning for the consumption of movies increases on over-the-top (OTT) platforms.

    Turner India senior director and network head- English entertainment Rohit Bhandari feels that there is no empirical data that proves any cannibalisation of viewership. They are currently driving all the strategies towards making the television-viewing experience an almost personal and incredible one rather than diverging into OTT for now.

    Both HBO and WB are available across all the DTH operators and key national networks and MSOs across India. Turner India is planning to strengthen its line-up of premieres for the year 2018, which will have movies from big studios like Warner Bros and Paramount and help in reaching the goals.

    Bhandari, in an interaction with Indiantelevision.com, said that the network intends to deepen the relationship with its fans by not only by expanding the content library but also by giving them more meaningful experiences through innovative ways by which they can participate and engage with its brands.

    Edited excerpts:

    What are your plans, innovations and strategies for 2018 for your English movies channels?

    We are a fan-first company, and our strategy for HBO and WB reflects our viewer-centric approach. Our plans are centered around growing and super servicing our fans, the successful execution of which will ultimately help us to achieve higher ratings and in turn enable us to deliver bigger advertising revenues. Through interesting content and continuous engagement with the audience, we intend to build upon the strong fan-base we have. This, of course, would be aimed at increasing the total number of viewers and increasing our revenue share.

    Ted Turner once famously said, ‘Just because your ratings are bigger doesn’t mean you’re better.’ We are driven by the same thought. While ranks are important and we are constantly monitoring what’s happening with the genre, we’re focused on being better. We are taking a `Kaizen’ approach to everything that we do. We look to improve continuously with not just our content acquisitions but also with our distribution, marketing and communication plans.

    We place a very high premium on the fan experience and we look for opportunities to create an environment that our viewers have come to expect from our brands and delivering that experience.

    Will there be a change in the programming line-up this year?

    In 2018 our fans can expect an even stronger line up of premieres. A line-up from Warner Bros and Paramount Studios that we now will help drive our reach and expansion goals. While we started the year with a bang, with the premiere of Kong: Skull Island, we have some great titles lined up for the year such as Wonder Woman, Transformers: The Last Knight, Baywatch, Dunkirk, Justice League to name a few. Creatively curated together from an extensive library of ever-popular hit titles in our library, we are confident of keeping and growing our fans with this great line-up.

    What is your current target group?

    The core target group that English Movies seeks is 16-30 years, with some spillover happening at both ends of the age spectrum. However, from a BARC measurement point of view, we evaluate our brands on 1 Mn+ markets, 15-40 age group, NCCS A audiences.

    We will expand this fan-base by empathising with our viewers. In 2017, we interacted with fans by using languages and mediums that they were most comfortable with viz. social media and instant messaging like WhatsApp. The idea of interacting with their favourite movie channel in real time generated a lot of excitement for our fans and created great value for us in terms of pure engagement and feedback. This almost personal experience with the brand is what we will be continuing with, going into 2018, thereby widening the fan pool.

    Is there any change in the prime time band?

    Our strategy around prime time band remains the same as last year. We follow a differentiated strategy during weekdays and over weekends. Given that weekdays are busy times for people, we play more of the action oriented blockbuster titles as the viewer is looking for a quick fix and blockbusters offer them an easy entry into the film. However, the weekends allow us to expose more of our library to our viewers. With 1 pm and 9 pm being the key slots which are reserved for popular titles, the other slots like 11 am, 3 pm, 7 pm etc. allow us to play a variety of titles across genres. 

    In terms of viewership, how are the channels performing?

    With its brand promise of Experience The Magic, HBO focuses on presenting its viewers with some of the biggest blockbusters from Hollywood and we ensure that our loyal fans are provided the best in movie entertainment and with our exciting and highly popular library. HBO continues to be amongst the top performing movie channels in India.

    Youth brands and male brands dominate our channels. Auto, mobile handset, e-commerce and IT products are key categories.

    With increasing digital content consumption, are you planning to launch an OTT platform?

    ‘Experience The Magic’ is an intended consumer experience that we want consumers to feel every time that they engage with HBO. Given the variety of choices available to the consumer today, we realise that it is important to convert our consumer from a viewer into a fan, and the only way of doing that is putting the fan at the center of everything. A majority of fans in the multi-tiered Indian market love the experience of films – visual as well as audio – that television brings them, and we are currently driving all our strategies towards making this television-viewing experience an almost personal, incredible one rather than diverging into OTT for now.

    What are your marketing and promotional strategies for the new content?

    Our industry is evolving and consumers demand not just choice – which they already have a lot of – but also convenience, value and more than just great content. They are also looking for unique experiences. Which explains why we at Turner have a fan-first strategy and been so focused on fan experiences. This transcends further into our promotional and marketing strategies for new content. For example, for our recent premiere of Kong: Skull Island, we made the experience even more special for fans, with HBO and HBO HD releasing cool ‘Stand with Kong’ filter available on Facebook camera filters. Fans could use the filter for a cool picture that would visually bring them face to face with Kong himself. Further, we also created a unique Facebook SmartApp, so fans could see how they measure up to the gigantic legend. This was accompanied by exciting contests on HBO’s social platforms.

    All major titles throughout the year will see similar strategies that bring fans closer to experiencing the magic.

    Has the trend of watching movies on OTT platforms affected business?

    We believe that even though OTT is growing, TV will continue to be the main source of entertainment for a majority of the audience in the Indian market. It is a multi-tiered market, and for OTT to have a significant impact on TV viewership, there needs to be economic affordability and the access to good bandwidth. Also, the experience of television, which complements the largeness of a film and its effects, cannot be compared to that of OTT. Over the last couple of years, our ratings have been rather stable and while there certainly has been higher acceptance to the various OTT players, there is no empirical data that proves any cannibalisation of viewership.

    Do you think ad revenue will pick-up this year? 

    HBO as a brand is iconic that advertisers have appreciated and respected over the years. With the launch of HBO HD coupled with its new look, we saw a steady positive response from advertisers in the last couple of years.

    2017 was a challenging year for everyone with demonetisation and GST implementation. 2018 has opened far better and we expect to see a pickup from March onwards. A trend we hope will strengthen even further. 

    HBO is perceived as an aspirational brand, identified with big premieres, large blockbuster titles and hence, has always commanded a very strong premium on rates over competition.

    2018’s exciting lineup has piqued advertiser interest. At the end of the day, advertisers need some big vehicles to get their brands onto and this year HBO has the right mix of titles to attract some of the biggest brands and advertisers.

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    SPN English cluster innovations for 2018