ITV

Tag: GEC

  • #Throwback2020: Linear TV ad volumes on the mend, revenues sluggish

    #Throwback2020: Linear TV ad volumes on the mend, revenues sluggish

    NEW DELHI: For linear television, 2020 was like a ride to hell and back, owing to the Covid2019-induced lockdown. It was the first time that shoots were canned wholesale, there were no new shows running, and advertising volumes hit abysmal lows. All was not doom and gloom – the industry saw meteoric rise in viewership, initially banking on reruns of old classics like Ramayan and Mahabharat, followed by marquee properties like the IPL, KBC, and Bigg Boss making their way to our screens. While this may have resulted in an uptick in subscription revenues, advertising prospects remained stunted through the year. Here’s a quick overview of how advertising fared on linear television in 2020. 

    The maths of it 

    The first quarter of FY21 saw the industry incurring huge losses as advertisers pulled out advertising monies as production and supply chains across industries took a big hit.

    Average ad volumes per day dipped to 752 hours in April-June ‘20 quarter, as compared to 1,032 hours in January-March ’20, according to TAM data. The ad revenues for broadcasters witnessed a year-on-year decline of 59 per cent in Q1 of FY21, as shared by ICRA. Depending on genres, advertisement revenues were impacted by 25-60 per cent (vis-a-vis pre-Covid average monthly revenues) in Q1 FY21. While news and movie genres were on the lower end of the spectrum, with an average decline of 25-30 per cent in advertisement revenues, GECs and sports channels witnessed a sharp 50-60 per cent reduction in advertisement revenues. 

    This was despite a meteoric rise in TV viewership in those months. BARC data reports a nine per cent increase in TV viewership during January-June ‘20 as compared to the corresponding period last year; the growth was led by the news, kids, and movie channels. Understandably, the viewership declined by three per cent for GECs, given the lack of fresh programming. 

    The industry started getting back on its feet steadily as lockdown restrictions eased and businesses started moving forward, the IPL and festive season gave it further momentum. The ad volumes in the second half of the year showed outstanding growth. Average ad volumes per day rose by 39 per cent in the fourth quarter compared to average ad volumes of the previous three quarters, TAM data showed. 

    Caption– Source: TAM

    According to BARC estimates, advertising volumes grew by 10-11 per cent over 2019 during Dussehra and Diwali 2020. Ad volume for Ganesh Chaturthi was up seven per cent over last year. Another study, by TAM, revealed that there were 655 new advertisers who made an appearance on GECs in September-November 2020, as compared to the past two years. This new league of advertisers included names like Facebook, Airtel Payments Bank and WhiteHat Education Technology.

    As per ICRA, TV broadcasters saw a strong sequential recovery of 86 per cent in advertising revenue in Q2 FY21. However, it still remained 20 per cent lesser on a year-on-year basis. GECs too regained their popularity. 

    As expected, the biggest share of this improving pie landed in the IPL’s kitty. Despite the sponsorship rate for the league going down by 25 per cent, the industry is positive that the league would have made 10-15 per cent more in revenues (https://www.indiantelevision.com/mam/media-and-advertising/sponsorship/eventually-ipl-2020-scored-big-with-advertisers-sponsors-201111) as compared to 2019, clocking around Rs 2,000 crore on TV alone.  Comprehensively, TV broadcasters in ICRA’s sample set reported a 21 per cent year-on-year decline in revenues in H1 FY21. 

    On an overall level, the industry has indicated mixed projections for the state of ad revenues for broadcasters in 2020. While Edelweiss has pegged it to grow by 6.5 per cent, KPMG and GroupM are indicating a contraction. 

    Talking to Indiantelevision.com in April this year, the industry indicated a negative growth for 2020 (https://www.indiantelevision.com/mam/marketing/mam/covid-19-might-push-traditional-advertising-towards-negative-growth-200428). 

    Madison Media and OOH group CEO Vikram Sakhuja said the advertising growth, which was pinned by his firm at around 10 per cent at the beginning of the year, will take a big hit in this calendar year. “We were expecting around a six per cent growth for traditional and around 28-30 per cent for digital media. However, looking at the current scenario, traditional media might observe a negative growth, while digital will also shrink considerably. We will be lucky if we can see a one-two per cent growth this year.”

    The rise of new categories

    Top ranks of advertisers on television underwent some shuffling as industries dealt with the crisis. As per TAM data, personal care/personal hygiene sector had a 20 per cent share of ad volumes, followed by F&B with 18 per cent share. Education became the only new entrant in the top 10 list of sectors advertising on TV. It was possibly because of the new home education module that people were forced to live with. Ed-tech companies like Byju’s, WhiteHat Jr, and Vedantu advertised heavily on television. 

    Source: TAM 

    Additionally, Ecom-media/entertainment/social media moved up five positions to achieve the second spot in leading categories advertising on television.

    Source: TAM 

    Hand sanitisers also registered robust growth and it was reflected in the television ad volumes too. Most of the leading exclusive brands in the year belonged to the category, along with social media, ed-tech, and OTT services. 

    Source: TAM 

    On the contrary, the FMCG sector that jumped the fence to go digital in 2020 might have taken out some from the TV pie. For instance, India’s largest advertiser Hindustan Unilever spent Rs 1,936 crores in the July-September quarter, 17 per cent less than the corresponding quarter in 2019. While the ad volumes from FMCG brands clung back to pre-Covid levels, it is yet to be seen if the revenues will turn back or not. 

    The year saw the television industry in a massive flux, struggling to keep up with the rapidly changing state of affairs. While categories like news remained on a positive incline through the year, GECs suffered losses for the most part of it. In terms of ad revenues, it might be clocking much less than what was forecast at the beginning of 2020, but industry projects fair tidings from the second quarter of 2021. It will be interesting to see how the industry fares in the coming year. 
     

  • Zee Bangla begins 2021 on a sweet note with Mithai

    Zee Bangla begins 2021 on a sweet note with Mithai

    NEW DELHI: Bengal, known for its rich culture and heritage of sweets, has witnessed an evolution. With the rise of consciousness around health and innovation in sweet making, the traditional sweets of Bengal are dying a slow death much like the culture of joint families which are slowly losing relevance in today’s fast-paced lifestyles.

    Zee Bangla has always pioneered Bengal’s indigenous ingredients and revived intricacies of Bengal’s heritage so that they don’t become extinct. A classic example of the same is bringing back the folk and kirtan forms into its mega musical reality show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa which beautifully emphasises the brand promise – ‘NotunChondeLikhboJibon’. And with its new launch – Mithai, the brand has embarked on a journey to revive the lost traditional sweets that Bengal was once famous for.

    Mithai is a warm, ‘mishti story’ of going back to the roots, celebrating family values and rituals. It revolves around a business family which has stood strong for over 50 years by staying true to self. The Modak family, residing in south Kolkata, is known for its traditional Bengali sweets and has many franchises across the city. They are a joint family celebrating relationships and every occasion in the true sense. But Siddhartha (Adrit Roy), of the current generation of the family, had a difficult childhood with losing his mother at a young age and staying away from the family for an impressionable amount of time. He has grown up dreaming of going beyond and doing things on his own. He is the modern-day health-conscious man who doesn’t like sweets and has no interest in being part of the family business.

    While our male lead has a worldly outlook, our female protagonist Mithai (Soumitrisha Kundu) comes from rural Bengal. Mithai was born to a sweet-making karigar family and is a karigar herself. She makes delicious monohara sweet and comes to Kolkata every day to sell them. On one such day, she is introduced to the Modak family. As she immediately wins everyone’s hearts, she takes up the challenge to get Siddharth to lover her sweets. Thereon, she embarks on a journey to bring Siddharth back to the family beliefs and take the business to greater heights.

    The concept is entirely developed and produced in house and directed by Rajendra Prasad Das and written by Shaswati Ghosh. The show will premiere from 4 January, Monday-Saturday at 8 pm.

    This show will revisit many forgotten parts of Bengali culture specially sweets like monohara and showcase the rooted nostalgia of a joint family. It will also have an eternal love story following the most basic and relatable concept of human relationships- opposites attract via portrayal of two sides of Bangaliyana – the urban and the traditional.

    ZEEL cluster head – east Samrat Ghosh said, “As a brand, we are deeply rooted in Bengali values and cultures – and we put continuous effort to bring it alive both in our fiction and non-fiction offerings into new rhythm. We are sure that such efforts of ours would help our viewers to relive and reconnect with the strong culture and value of Bengalis. Mithai is a story of Bengali culture of “togetherness” in staying in a joint family, a story of exhibiting strong family values, a story of sharing happiness and sweetness– and all these will centre around in the revival of a traditional mishti called monohara.”

  • Sun TV Network posts Rs 345.91 crore profit in Q2

    Sun TV Network posts Rs 345.91 crore profit in Q2

    KOLKATA: Despite growth in subscription revenue, Sun TV Network’s profit for the second quarter declined 5.62 per cent to Rs 345.91 crore, from Rs.366.51 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

    The revenues for the quarter stood at Rs 756.16 crore as against Rs 773 .93 crore for the corresponding quarter previous year. The total income for the quarter was at Rs 807.71 crore as against Rs 846.07 crore in Q2 FY19.

    However, it has reported a good growth in subscription revenue that is up by 14 per cent year-on-year Rs 427.04 crore compared to Rs 375.65 crore in the same quarter last year. EBITDA for the quarter is up by 7.10 per cent year over year standing at Rs 502.03 crore.

    “The stock is currently trading at 12.5x FY22E and 12x FY23E PER, which still appears to be reasonable given the strong balance sheet position, healthy cash reserves and potential buyback/dividend (current dividend yield of 6.25 per cent) which will augur well for investors, and provides upside potential despite weak ad revenues. We maintain accumulate with same TP of Rs 525 on 14.5x (unchanged) one-year forward P/E,” said Elara Capital VP research analyst (media) Karan Taurani.

    Taurani added that in terms of weekly viewership share data by BARC, the network has been losing viewership share for three consecutive months, slipping below 40 per cent mark on the back of relaxation of lockdown and resumption of new shows on rival channels in Tamil genre post July 2020. However, he said that the share of flagship channel Sun TV is expected to stabilize and largely move back to pre-Covid levels of over 40 per cent backed by the recently launched three new programs within the GEC genre.

  • Bodhi Tree Multimedia’s debut on NSE Emerge to fuel expansion & growth

    Bodhi Tree Multimedia’s debut on NSE Emerge to fuel expansion & growth

    KOLKATA: It is not a common practice for production houses in India to venture into the capital market. But in quite a unique move, content production company Bodhi Tree Multimedia Ltd recently debuted on NSE Emerge. It has already raised Rs 3.71 crore from its SME initial public offering, which will go towards expansion activities and strategic growth, said Bodhi Tree Multimedia managing director Mautik Tolia.

    Started in 2013 by Tolia and Sukesh Motwani, the production house initially focused on general entertainment on TV, and later expanded into other genres and also into digital content. Along with working for major broadcasters, it has produced content for OTT platforms like Voot, Viu.

    Tolia said that they had been considering going public since last year, and the process would have been finished in the last financial year if the Covid2019-induced lockdown had not struck suddenly. Hence, they had to push it back by a couple of months.

    “You are at a point in entertainment industry where you are at an inflection point with digital content, TV content. Moreover, new avenues of content production are emerging. If you want to take advantage of that, this is the right time to focus on accessing the capital market because it is a long-term way for a company to grow. Eventually, if you want to develop your own IP, being listed opens lots of doors for you. It’s a strategic objective, more than anything else,” Tolia explained.

    The company posted Rs 27.45 crore consolidated revenue for FY20. For the first five months of FY21, it has reported Rs 4.86 crore revenue and profit of 0.32 crore. In a filing on the stock exchange, the company has also stated that it intends to utilize the issue proceeds towards working capital requirements, general corporate purpose and meeting the issue expenses.

    Elara Capital VP – research analyst (Media) Karan Taurani also endorsed the decision of getting listed. Noting that content making has, in fact, picked up during Covid period due to increased amount of time spent on TV and digital platforms, Taurani said this has led to greater demand for good content from major broadcasters and OTT players alike. According to him, Bodhi Tree Multimedia is a solid production house which has made quality TV shows and web-series. Hence, Taurani expressed confidence that it will get a good valuation.

    Taurani went on to mention that being platform-agnostic will also work in Bodhi Tree’s favour in a market where most listed content creators churn out shows either for their own channels or OTT platforms. Hence, it will provide multiple opportunities overall, he shared.

  • Voot strengthens content portfolio with Shemaro’s linear channels

    Voot strengthens content portfolio with Shemaro’s linear channels

    KOLKATA: Voot has announced a strategic partnership with India’s leading content powerhouse Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd. to provide its live linear channels Shemaroo TV and Shemaroo MarathiBana to the millions of users of the platform.

    The association will further strengthen Voot’s current content portfolio and provide unlimited entertainment to its viewers. The users will have access to Shemaroo TV’s popular and entertaining gamut of shows, across various genres likes Mythology, Drama, Horror, and Romance. In addition to this, viewers will have access to Shemaroo MarathiBana, a Marathi movie channel that will entertain Voot users by offering highly rated Marathi movies.

    Commenting on the partnership, Viacom18 Digital Ventures COO Gourav Rakshit said, “At Voot, we believe that content is pivotal for the growth of digital platforms. Live TV is one of the highest growing categories amongst videos for the on-the-move digital consumers. We have specifically worked on ramping up this category to ensure our viewers stay connected with their favorite channels of movies and shows, even when they are not in front of a television set. With our partnership with Shemaroo, we believe that our viewers will find content relevant and engrossing. In tough times like these, Shemaroo’s efforts are in line with our idea of bringing engaging and enriching content on board for all our viewers.”

    Sharing his thoughts on the partnership Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd broadcast COO Sandeep Gupta said, “Shemaroo’s broadcast business has been entertaining the masses of India since the start of the year and given the circumstances it was all the more necessary to have access to some friendly entertaining distractions.  Our partnership with Voot will help us not only strengthen the bond with our audiences even further but also help reach out to a wider set of audience and geography. I am extremely happy and confident that both our channels will be appreciated and loved by Voot users since they have been the first choice for viewers since the launch.”

  • IPL 13 grows and grabs television viewership

    IPL 13 grows and grabs television viewership

    BENGALURU: Live telecast of the Indian Premier League (IPL) must seem an abomination for competitors’ networks. Year in and year out, the period during which the cricketing bonanza is played, all genres and competing sports networks have seen viewership numbers dip as Indians tuned into the channels of the network that aired the event live – the network being Star India in this edition of IPL or IPL 2020 or IPL13 as it is known. The Covid2019 pandemic delayed IPL by around five to six months. In a normal year, IPL commences around the end of March or at the beginning of April every year and runs for about six weeks or so. The event this year clashes with flagship programmes such as the twelfth season of Hindi Kaun Banega Crorepati hosted by Bollywood doyen Amitabh Bachchan and with the initial weeks of the Salman Khan hosted fourteenth edition of the Hindi Bigg Boss. This paper comes with a caveat – the conclusions in it are based on BARC weekly data of the top 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10 channels/programmes of various genres in different languages/platfroms in the public domain.

    Week 38 of 2020 (Saturday,19 September 2020 to Friday, 25 September 2020, week or period under review) saw television viewership climb 2.4 percent to 17.0 billion weekly impressions from 16.5 billion weekly impressions reported for the previous week according to Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) data published in the public domain. Viewership in week 38 of 2020 was 15.1 percent higher than the pre-Covid2019 average of 14.77 billion weekly impressions. Ratings watchdogs BARC and Nielsen have standardized the average data for weeks 02 and 04 2020 as the pre-Covid2019 average. As is obvious from the figure below, television viewership had started declining from week 34 of 2020. IPL 13 week saw viewership growth. 

    BARC weekly list of the Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across genres saw Star Sports 1 Hindi catupult into it, and that too at rank 1.  Though the combined ratings of the Top 10 Channels in this list grew 5.8 percent to 8,322.475 billion weekly impressions in week 38 of 2020 from 7,863.577 billion weekly impressions in the previous week, seven of the channels in the list saw a decline in viewership. Two channels exited the list in week 38 of 2020. Star Sports 1 Hindi entered the list as mentioned above at rank 1 with 1,247.407 billion weekly impressions. It must be noted that Star India is airing IPL 13 on Star Sports 1, Star Sports 1 HD, Star Sports 2, Star Sports 2 HD, Star Sports 1 Hindi and Star Sports 1 Hindi HD TV channels as well as live streaming on the Disney+ Hotstar digital platform.

    Read more news on IPL

    Analysis of BARC data in the public domain of the top 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10 channels of various genres in different languages/platfroms for week 38 of 2020 reveals that the top channale of all major genres such as GECs’, news, movies and kids saw ratings dip. According to BARC-Nielsen reports these four genres garnered around 90 percent of television viewership. BARC data shows that combined impressions data for the Top 5 Sports channels grew 8.6 times to 1,734.956 billion weekly impressions in week 38 of 2020 from 201.549 billion weekly impressions in the previous week. It is quite obvious that the sports genre has helped television viewership grow, while at the same time has eaten into viewership of other genres/sub-genres across platforms – be they pay or free or combined free and pay.

    Top 10 Channels on All Platforms, Pay Platform and Free Platform Across Genres

    The Star India Network pulled viewership eyeballs with five channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels on All Plaform Across Genres in week 38 of 2020. There were two channels from Sony Pictures Network (SPN) and one channel each from Enterr10 Television, Sun Tv Network and Zee Entertainment Enterrpises Limited (Zeel) besides those of Star India in the top 10 weekly list for the week under review.Two channels, Viacom18’s Hindi GEC Colors Rishtey and Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV exited the list and were replaced by Star Sports 1 Hindi and Star India’s flagship Tamil GEC Star Vijay. There were six Hindi GEC channels, two Tamil channels and one channel each from the sports and the Telugu genres in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres.

    BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres also was dominated by Star India channels – there were four of them. Besides, there were 3 channels from Zeel and one channel each from SPN, Sun Tv Network and Viacom18. While the combined weekly impressions of the Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres increased 10 percent to 7,285.986 billion weekly impressions in week 38 of 2020 from 6,624.357 billion weekly impressions in week 37 of 2020, five of the channels saw week-on-week (w-o-w) decline in weekly impressions. One channel – Star India’s flagship Bangla channel Star Jalsha exited the list in week 38 of 2020 and was replaced by Star Sports 1 Hindi. There were four Hindi GECs’, three Tamil channels, two Telugu channels and one Sports channel in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Pay channels Across Genres.

    BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in week 38 of 2020 had the same line up of channels in the same order as in the previous week. However, the combined weekly impressions of the 10 channels in week 38 of 2020 declined 1.5 per cent to 3,535.728 billion weekly impressions from 3,588.256 billion weekly impressions in week 37. Six of the channels in the list saw viewership decline, while four saw viewership increase. Six of the channels were Hindi GECs’ while four were Hindi Movies channels. There were three channels from Zeel, two channels from Viacom18, and one channel each from B4U Network, Enterr10 Television, Goldmine Telefilms, Star India and SPN in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in week 38 of 2020.

    Please refer to the chart below:

  • Non-Hindi channels continue to dominate top 10 pay channels across genres

    Non-Hindi channels continue to dominate top 10 pay channels across genres

    BENGALURU: As the progress in the Sushant Singh Rajput case seemingly tapered off, the news genre lost some of its sheen in terms of weekly impressions in Week 37 of 2020 (Saturday 12 Sep 2020 to Friday 18 Sep 2020, week or period under review). Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) data for top five Hindi, English, Assamese, Bangla, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Tamil and Telugu channels reveals that the top news channels lost viewership in Week 37 of 2020 as compared to the previous week (Week 36 of 2020). At the same time, overall television viewership in Week 37 of 2020 at 16.6 billion weekly impressions was just a fraction higher than the 16.5 billion weekly impressions in Week 36. BARC data for the top 10 Hindi GEC channels, top four Assamese channels and top five Bangla, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu channels for the week under review shows that viewership of most of these genre/sub-genres in respective platforms and markets increased to contribute to the small increase in overall viewership. The top five channels of English entertainment channels, infotainment, lifestyle, English & Hindi movies, music, sports and top four youth channels also saw viewership in terms of weekly impressions grow.

    Top 10 Channels on All Platforms, Pay Platform and Free Platform Across Genres

    BARC’s weekly list of top 10 channels on all platforms across genres saw the combined weekly impressions in Week 37 of 2020 increase as compared to the previous week. Nine of the channels in the All Platforms channels list were the same with a slight shuffling of ranks as in the previous week. One Telugu channel from the Zee Entertainment Enterprises (Zeel) stable exited the list in week 37 of 2020 to be replaced by its sister channel and Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV at rank 10. There were eight Hindi GECs and one channel each from the Tamil and the Telugu genres in the list. There were three channels from Star India, two channels from Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and Zeel and one channel each from Enterr10 Television, Sun Tv Network and Viacom18 in BARC’s Weekly list of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres in Week 37 of 2020.

    Read more news on BARC

    BARC’s Weekly list of top 10 pay channels across genres was dominated by two south Indian language channels – three from the Tamil genre, two channels from the Telugu genres and one from the Bangla genre along with four Hindi GECs. There were four channels from Star India, three channels from Zeel, one channel each from SPN, Sun Tv Network and Viacom18. One channel exited the list in Week 37 of 2020 – the Viacom18 associated ETV Telugu which was replaced by Star India’s flagship Banga GEC Star Jalsha at rank 10.

    All the 10 channels in BARC’s weekly list of top 10 free channels in Week 37 of 2020 were the same as in the previous in the same rank order. Six of the channels were Hindi GECs’ while four were Hindi Movies channels. There were three channels from Zeel, two channels from Viacom18, and one channel each from B4U Network, Enterr10 Television, Goldmine Telefilms, Star India and SPN. 

    Please refer to the table below:

  • Leveraging the power of IPL with limited outlays

    Leveraging the power of IPL with limited outlays

    MUMBAI: Newspapers and online news media have been flashing headlines how this company or that brand has invested huge outlays to get associated with the Dream11 Indian Premier League (IPL) as a sponsor. These numbers could cue that the IPL is out of bounds for in brand managers in mid-sized and smaller companies or firms with limited budgets and lower amounts to spend on a high impact event like the IPL and possibly kept them from considering it as a property to be associated with.

    But, wait, the IPL is not a big spender’s game alone. As we analyse some campaigns and advertisers from previous editions we see that brands have chosen smaller outlay routes in line with their budgets, campaign timings and business agendas. For instance, brands can associate with the IPL for less than 10 matches – rather than all the 56 matches. Then, there is the option of tying up for the live programming before and after each clash, featuring sports specialists and cricketing experts who dissect the upcoming game as well as the result of the just concluded one.

    Experts opine that many a brand has opted for one of the two and hit their sales out of the park just like Pollard wallops many a bowler mercilessly for those deep sixes.

    Read more news on IPL 2020

    Take for example, Grofers.

    In 2019, online grocery ecommerce platform Grofers went in for a burst of sharp advertising for a limited time period. It aired its commercials for as little as a week during the IPL matches between 31 March 2019 and 7 April 2019. The reason: research had pointed out that family habits had evolved and they were shopping for the entire month in bulk in the first seven days. So, it was looking at opportunities to make Grofers the first port of call for this activity. It partnered with banks and credit card companies and announced its Houseful Sale offering discounts on purchases with specific plastic brands.

    The net outcome: searches on the market place surged 2.2x times at peak on 5 April and averaged a 50 per cent hike for the entire duration of the TVC.

    Grofers vice-president marketing Prashant Verma was delighted with the results. Said he: “Advertising during the IPL elevated the impact of our campaign and we saw great results on both brand and business metrics – in terms of organic reach, brand lift on consideration, growth in order volumes, and new user acquisition.”

    Cricket legend MS Dhoni has been associated with consumer electricals company Orient Electric as its brand ambassador. The CK Birla group outfit, which is known for its exotic fans, has also been a partner of the Chennai Super Kings team for several seasons now.

    It opted for the IPL’s team package and through it found a way to target audiences and followers of CSK matches and was able to build the association of Orient MS Dhnoi and CSK.

    It strewed its commercials featuring Dhoni in all programming related to the IPL and team CSK. And it worked wonders. According to BARC data, the brand’s reach not only increased in the urban markets in the 22-50 age group, – which was the brand custodian’s objective – but its business grew at a scorching 30 per cent in revenues – double its competitor’s ramp ups.

    Brands also have the option to choose feature properties, like the Orange Cap, the super sixes, or the fours, or the fall of wickets, or super catches. Just like, TooYumm – the healthy snacking brand from the RPG-Sanjiv Goenka group stable – did by becoming the fall of wickets partner and resorted to moment marketing successfully. You can find out more about what it did and the results it got by reading How Too Yum hit a Six with the IPL.

    For advertisers it’s a win-win all the way. Even as the outlays are smaller as they are for a limited quota of matches, they manage to get amassive bang in terms of impact intheir limited spots.

    BARC data highlights this.

    The reach for the first 10 matches varied between 345 million and 241 million in 2019’s IPL (U+R 2+). As compared to this, a top rated GEC show during the festive season generated a reach of 185 million on the higher side.

    The ad breaks during the IPL cricket matches are usually less than a minute long and do not show more than three to four ads at once, while in a general entertainment channel, the ad breaks are of five minutes duration with 14-25 ads in them, so the clutter is much higher. Also, due to the longer ad break duration attention (eyes on screen during ad break) in IPL is high – up to two times than in GEC breaks. 

    So with an imaginative and attention-grabbing creative and campaign, advertisers can but be sure that they will get a return for their hard earned buck.

    According to Group M entertainment and sports head Vinit Karnik the festival called IPL offers innovative ideas and smaller packages that the broadcaster’s sales team churns up. “Brands are willing to explore these opportunities and will find reasons to associate with them. In these Covid times, the Indian Premier League has become that little cheer which we will watch in our living rooms,” he says.

    Clearly, that’s a thought to ponder upon.

  • Star Plus most watched pay TV channel across genres in Week 35

    Star Plus most watched pay TV channel across genres in Week 35

    BENGALURU: Star India’s Hindi GECs’ Star Plus and Star Utsav topped all the three across genres weekly lists published by Broadcast Audience Research Council of India in the public domain for Week 35 of 2020 (Saturday, 29 August 2020 to Friday, 4 September 2020, week or period under review). While Star Utsav topped BARC’s weekly lists of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres and Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres, flagship Hindi GEC Star Plus topped BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across genre during the period under review. Further, Star Plus was ranked second in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres.

    Hindi GEC’s once again prop up Television Viewership

    BARC data reveals that viewership in Week 35 and Week 34 was the same at 16.9 billion weekly impressions. Analysis of BARC data for the Top 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10 channels of genres/sub-genres/languages/ platforms in the public domain indicates that as in the case of Week 34, it was again Hindi GECs’ that propped up television viewership. The Top 5 Kids, Hindi and English Movies and News channels in 10 languages lost viewership in Week 35 of 2020 as compared to the previous week. Analysis of BARC data for the top 4, 5 or 10 GEC channels reveals that though GEC viewership climbed up slightly, GECs’ of most languages lost viewership, while the Hindi GEC genre, which is quite a large genre, gained viewership. To quite an extent, Hindi GECs’ helped maintain television viewership in terms of weekly impressions. It must be noted that Week 34 of 2020 had witnessed the largest drop on 0.7 billion weekly impressions from the 17.6 billion weekly impressions in Week 33 of 2020.

    Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres

    The Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres were all GECs’. Hindi GECs’ dominated the list in Week 35 of 2020. There were eight of them present in the Across Genres on All Platforms list in Week 35 of 2020. Besides the 8 Hindi GECs’, there was one channel each from the Tamil and Telugu genres. As mentioned above, Star India’s Hindi GEC Star Utsav continued heading BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres in Week 35 of 2020 for the fourth week in a row.  As a matter of fact, 8 of the 10 channels in BARC’s Weekly list for Week 35 of 2020 were the same as in the previous week. Two Telugu channels from the weekly list for Week 34 0f 2020 exited and were replaced by two Hindi GECs’ in Week 35 of 2020. Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) flagship Kannada GEC and the Network18 (Viacom18) affiliated ETV Telugu exited and were replaced by Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV and Viacom18’s Hindi GEC Colors Rishtey.

    There were 3 Star India channels, two channels each from Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and Zeel and one channel each from Enterr 10 Television, Sun TV Network (Sun TV) and Network18/Viacom18 in the list for Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres in Week 35 of 2020.

    Please refer to the chart below:

    Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres

    Sun TV gave way to Star Plus which led BARC Weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres during the period under review. Nine of the 10 channels in BARC’s weekly list for Week 35 of 2020 were the same as in the previous week, but with some shuffling of ranks. Zee Kannada, exited the list and was replaced by Star India’s flagship Tamil GEC Star Vijay. BARC’s weekly list of Across genres pay channels was dominated by two South Indian languages GECs’ – there were six of them – three each from the Tamil and Telugu genres and four Hindi GECs’ in the list for Week 35 of 2020.

    There were three channels each from Star India and Star India two channels from Network18/Viacom18 and one channel each from SPN and the Sun Tv Network in BARC’s weekly top pay channels list for Week 34 of 2020. Please refer to the chart below.

    Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres

    Star Utsav headed BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in Week 35 of 2020. All of the 10 channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in Week 35 of 2020 were the same as in Week 34 with only one shuffling  ranks – Zeel’s Big Magic moved up one rank to eighth place and Viacom18’s Hindi Movies channel Rishtey Cineplex dropped a rank to ninth in Week 35 of 2020 as compared to Week 34.

    There were three channels from Zeel, two channels from Viacom18 and one channel each from B4U Network, Enterr 10 Television, Goldmine Telefilms, SPN and Star India in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in Week 35 of 2020. There six Hindi GECs’ and four Hindi Movies channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in Week 35 of 2020. Please refer to the figure below:

  • Hindi channels prop up Top TV channels viewership as Star Utsav dominance continues

    Hindi channels prop up Top TV channels viewership as Star Utsav dominance continues

    BENGALURU: Television viewership in terms of weekly impressions declined 3.98 percent in Week 34 of 2020 (Week 34: Saturday, 22 August 2020 to Friday, 28 August 2020, week or period under review) as compared to the immediate previous week 33. Per Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly data in the public domain, overall TV+OOH viewership in Week 34 of 2020 was 16.9 billion weekly impressions as compared to 17.6 billion weekly impressions in Week 33. After a steady increase since Unlock 1.0 (Week 22 of 2020), the drop of 0.7 billion impressions was the steepest one since the country opened up after the Covid2019 Lockdown that had commenced on 25 March 2020 or midweek in Week 13 of 2020. At that time, home-tied Indians turned to the easiest and most accessible medium for live news. Indians wanted to know more and more about the new pandemic that had forced most of the world to suddenly stop. Television viewership shot up to 20.9 billion impressions in Week 14 of 2020, with the News genre recording the largest growth, while GEC viewership slid down. Four genres – GEC, Movies, News and Kids are normally responsible for more than 90 percent of television viewership. The breakup for the COVID2019 average between Weeks 2 to 4 of 2020 was: GEC at 52 percent, Movies at 23 percent, and News and Kids at 7 percent each, or a combined total of 89 percent. The breakup of the combined total of 94 percent for these four genres in Week 13 of 2020 was GEC 40 percent, Movies 29 percent, News 18 percent and Kids 7 percent. It must be noted that overall television viewership had climbed up 

    Despite the drop in Week 34 of 2020, TV viewership based on weekly impressions in Week 34 of 2020 was 1.4 percent more than the average of Weeks 2 to 4 of 2020 of 14.8 billion weekly impressions. The current ratings agency BARC along with the older one Nielsen commenced editions of “Crisis Consumption – Impact Of COVID -19 On TV And Smartphone Behaviour Across India”. At the time of writing of this paper, eleven editions have been released by BARC-Nielsen. The ratings duo has standardized the average data for Weeks 2 to 4 of 2020 as a measure for television consumption trends. The author has also used the same yardstick to analyze television consumption trends of the Top channels based on BARC weekly data published each week in the public domain of the top 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 or 10 Television channels of each genre, sub-genre, language and/or platform in all-India or the respective market, The analysis of this paper is limited to that extent. Where required, data from the 11 editions released by BARC-Nielsen has been used. Though the percentages of share of consumption may differ from the numbers in the BARC-Nielsen reports and those arrived at by the author based on limited BARC data available in the public domain, BARCs’ historical conclusions generally conform with them. Please refer to the figure below for TV+OOH viewership data as per BARC Weekly data.

    Viewership share of GECs’ has been growing post Week 22 of 2020 per the latest BARC-Nielsen report which included data for Week 33 of 2020. Week 22 of 2020 was when a number of genres started creating fresh content after UNLOCK 1.0 commenced. Viewership share of GECs’ was 52 percent of overall television in Week 33 of 2020 which is at par with the Pre-COVID2019 average (average of Weeks 2 to 4 of 2020). In Week 12 of 2020, it had plunged to an all-time low of 39 percent. The 11th edition of the BARC-Nielsen report that included data for Week 33 of 2020 revealed that the overall television viewership of 17.6 billion impressions was still 22 percent higher than the pre-COVID2019 viewership. The breakup of growth in viewership between the HSM and South in Week 33 of 2020 was 24 percent and 17 percent respectively.

    Analysis of BARC data of the top 3, 4, 5 or 10 channels of different genres of GECs’ reveals that despite viewership of the top 56 unique GEC channels from multiple genres declining 0.7 percent in Week 34 of 2020 as compared to 54  unique GEC channels from multiple genres in Week 34, the ratings of top 16 Hindi GECs’ was flat (increased 0.1 percent) as compared to the previous week. The drop in viewership was mainly in the regional languages including South Indian languages GECs’.

    Similarly, in the case of News channels, though ratings of 50 plus unique news channels in different language declined by more than 5 percent in Week 34 of 2020 as compared to Week 33, ratings of the Top 5 Hindi News channels during the same period increased by 4.2 percent as compared to 6 unique channels in Week 33 of 2020.  Hence, it is the Hindi channels that have reduced the impact of the fall in overall viewership ratings in Week 34 of 2020 from the ratings of Week 33 of 2020.

    The figure below shows viewership share of various genres. It must be noted that the number of unique channels in both weeks is not the same (184 in Week 33 and 183 in Week 34 of 2020), and hence the number of unique channels across genres/sub-genres/languages/platform in the chart below are not the same in some cases. The author has created a rough measure by using data for unique channels that figure in BARCs’ weekly lists of Top 2, 3, 4, 5 or 10 channels for the two weeks.

    Top 10 Channels on All PlatformsAcross Genres

    Star India’s Hindi GEC Star Utsav continued heading BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres in Week 34 of 2020 for the third week in a row. As a matter of fact, 9 of the 10 channels in BARC’s Weekly list for Week 34 of 2020 were the same and had almost the same ranks as in the previous week. The only small reshuffling in ranks was the exchange of ranks between Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) Hindi GEC Zee Anmol and Star India’s flagship Hindi GEC Star Plus. The latter moved up one place while the formed dropped one place to rank4. The other change was that Zeel’s flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV at rank 10 in Week 33 of 2020 exited the list during the period under review and was replaced by the Network18 (Viacom18) associated Telugu channel ETV Telugu.

    Six Hindi GECs’, three Telugu channels and one Tamil channel made up BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres in Week 30 of 2020. There were 3 Star India channels, two channels each from Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and Zeel and one channel each from Enterr 10 Television, Sun TV Network (Sun TV) and Network18/Viacom18 in the list for Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres in Week 34 of 2020.

    Please refer to the chart below:

    Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres

    Sun TV continued to lead BARC Weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres during the period under review. Nine of the 10 channels in BARC’s weekly list for Week 34 of 2020 were the same as in the previous week, but with some shuffling of ranks. Gemini TV, The Sun TV Network’s flagship Telugu GEC, exited the list and was replaced by Zeel’s flagship Kannada GEC Zee Kannada.

    There were four channels from the Hindi GEC genre, three channels from the Telugu genre two channels from the Tamil genre and one channel Kannada genre in BARC weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres in Week 34 of 2020. There were three channels from Zeel, two channels each from Star India, Sun Tv Network and Network18/Viacom18 and one channel from SPN in BARC’s weekly top paychannels list for Week 34 of 2020. Please refer to the chart below.

    Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres

    Star Utsav headed BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in Week 34 of 2020. All of the 10 channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in Week 30 of 2020 were the same as in Week 29 with some shuffling of ranks

    There were three channels from Zeel, two channels from Viacom18 and one channel each from B4U Network, Enterr 10 Television, Goldmine Telefilms, SPN and Star India in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in Week 30 of 2020. There six Hindi GECs’ and four Hindi Movies channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in Week 29 of 2020. Please refer to the figure below: