ITV

Tag: GEC

  • SET gets back to basics with new series IndiawaaliMaa

    SET gets back to basics with new series IndiawaaliMaa

    MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Networks India (SPNI) GEC Sony Entertainment Television (SET) has always differed from the rest of the pack in that it has done well with stories which appealed to the younger demographic and in more urban settings. (Remember the smash hit JassiJaisiKohiNahin, Bade AccheLagate Hai, Patiala Babes).

    Now, SET is all set to bring another series IndiawaaliMaa which tells an endearing relatable tale of a mother who helps her son through difficult times. The daily premieres on 31 August and will air from Monday to Friday at 8:30 pm.

    The show is produced by Jay Productions and has Suchita Trivedi (Kaushalya), Nitesh Pandey (Hasmukh), AkshayMhatre (Rohan), and Sheen Dass (Chinamma) in the main lead.

    Jay Productions founder Kinnari Mehta says the idea of making IndiawaaliMaa  was spawned eight months back when writer Imtiaz Patel narrated a story about a mother’s journey traveling to London for her son who gets into  trouble.

    “A few months back in a meeting with Sony TV, I narrated the idea,” she shares.  “They instantly loved it.” 

    Originally, the plan was to film in London, but with restrictions on travel and budgets brought about by the pandemic, the story was tweaked with Mumbai as a location.

    According to Mehta, the studio faced many challenges while drafting the script and shooting while adhering to all the SOPs with limited crew.  Additionally, multiple units where shoots are happening simultaneously, are being resorted to ensure that there is no overcrowding in one location and social distancing is maintained.

    Also, due to restrictions on travel, the team is doing most of the coordination over Zoom calls.

    Kinnari says, “We wanted someone who looks like my mother and for that, we conducted auditions, practically from the entire industry and the biggest challenge we faced was most of the women who are in their forties  have toned bodies. I couldn’t relate to them. When Suchitra came for the audition, she wore a normal saree, hooped earrings, and donned messy braids. I instantly chose her for the role as she perfectly fits in it.”

    As far as Nitish Pandey is concerned, Mehta wanted someone who is like a strict father but also a loving husband.

    “This is a show which will allow all of us to know the heart of a mother – the heart of an unconditionally loving  Indian mother –  closely. IndiawaaliMaa is not just a show it is an  emotion. A story that can’t be said and can only be felt,” says Kinnari.

    SPNI  digital business & SET content  head Ashish Golwalkar  says that the show will appeal to almost everyone as at its heart are real human emotions. “A mother is someone who stands by her son through thick and thin,” he says. “And in IndiawaaliMaa,Kaushalya or Kaku, the mother, takes it upon herself to resurrect her son Rohan who has lost direction and is struggling to cope,” says Golwalkar.

    Overall, he is pleased with the way that things are progressing with SET. Says he: The channel has always focused on relevant topics and at younger audiences. Our content is mostly around people and laughter. The Kapil Sharma Show is doing relatively well."

    He  is happy that the production of Kaun Banega Crorepati has commenced last week with extremely high safety precautions for its host Amitabh Bachchan and crew members. It may be recalled that Bachchan was discharged from hospital earlier this month after recovering from Covid2019. Says Golwarlkar: “We lost KBC around August and its shooting schedule was postponed. Hopefully, it will be launched next month.”

    The good news is that auditions for both Kaun Banega Crorepati and Indian Idol have been completed and the participants decided. Indian Idol is set to launch in end-October, replacing India’s Best Dancer which is in its final  stages.

    During the lockdown, Golwalkar has observed that audiences are preferring shows which are full of nostalgia. “There is no denying that digital consumption is growing very fast. I head content for SonyLIV and see that the younger generation watch more on the digital platforms,” he shares.He further adds, “Our digital platform still gets a lot of traction from Tarak Mehta KaUltaChashma, Balveer, The Kapil Sharma Show and India’s Best Dancer. A lot of television consumption is slowly shifting to digital but it is just the change of screen. I believe television is as relevant as it was before.”

  • Rakesh Jain joins Sony Pictures Networks India as creative director

    Rakesh Jain joins Sony Pictures Networks India as creative director

    MUMBAI: Sony Pictures Networks India has recently appointed Rakesh Jain as creative director. He joined the company in July 2020. Recently, he was one of the key people in launching FTA GEC Shemaroo TV during the pandemic.

    He comes with over 18 years of experience in the media space where he has led the programming teams from the inception stage and has launched two successful Hindi GECs. He has also been instrumental in creating channel driver properties for Star group, Zee group, and Turner group from the broadcasting ecosystem. Jain worked as a vertical head for the commissioning team of one of the flagship channels of ZEE Network (&TV), he was responsible for shaping the content strategy of the channel. His main task was to identify the viewing needs of consumers and shaping stories and content to meet their expectations.

    Jain comes with a great experience of launching GEC channels. He earlier served as associate vice-president in &TV, and helmed the team of Bhabhiji Ghar Par Hain at the time of its inception. Jain was responsible for revamp of a GEC Channel on STAR network twice.  

    From 2001 to 2007, Jain worked in Star Plus as the executive producer and from 2007 till the day Imagine TV shut down, he held the position of the deputy creative director. Jain, who was in Sameer Nair’s core team during the days of Imagine TV’s inception, has also worked as a creative director for JD Majethia and Aatish Kapadia’s Hats Off Productions. He had joined the studio in May   2012 and worked till August 2013

    For the uninitiated Ramayan happened to be his first show on Imagine, and he went on to work with various shows like Jyoti, Chandragupta Maurya, Beend Banoongaa Ghodi Chadhungaa. He also worked on a show called Ganga – a family drama dealing with the prejudice against widows in one of the holiest places in India – Varanasi. Later, he took up the role of editor – vice president at Life OK in 2015.

  • Hindi and South Indian GECs drive television viewership up; Sun TV back on Top across genres

    Hindi and South Indian GECs drive television viewership up; Sun TV back on Top across genres

    BENGALURU: Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) reported 1.73 percent growth in overall television impressions in week 30 of 2020 (Saturday, 25 July 2020 to Friday, 31 July 2020, week or period under review) to 17.6 billion weekly impressions from 17.3 billion weekly impressions in the previous week. This number is still 21.4 percent higher than the viewership of 14.5 billion impressions reported for week 4 of 2020.

    BARC and Nielsen had set the average viewership data between weeks two and four of 2020 as the yardstick to measure television consumption trends during COVID-19 weeks. The author has considered week 4 of 2020 as the reference week here.

    Viewership has been driven mainly by GECs after the series of UNLOCKs’ announced by the government and airing of new content created post UNLOCK.  In week 30 of 2019, the growth drivers have been mainly South Indian channels and Hindi GECs. The analysis in this paper is limited to BARC data available in the public domain – the top 2,3,4,5 or 10 channels of the genre/sub-genre/language/platform/market. The unit of data released by BARC is impressions in thousands (000s). The channels in BARC’s weekly lists may vary week-on-week depending upon the viewership numbers in terms of weekly impressions each channel attracts.Conclusions by the author have been derived from this limited BARC data.

    BARC data in the public domain for week 30 of 2020 reveals that the combined weekly impressions of the top 10 Hindi GECs on all platforms in the Hindi speaking urban and rural markets, HSM (U+R) increased 3.9 percent as compared to the previous week. Viewership of the top 5 channels of the four South Indian languages – Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu also increased 7.1percent, 2.1 percent, 13.5 percent and 1.3 percent respectively. BARC considers the Hindi speaking market as all India minus the markets where the four South Indian languages are predominantly used – these are Karnataka (Kannada), Malayalam (Kerala), Tamil (Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and Telugu (Andhra Pradesh or AP and Telangana). By itself, the South Indian market is a huge market in terms of television penetration, and among the four, Tamil and Telugu markets are big in terms of population and TV homes.  After the various Hindi genres, BARC provided the most segmented but limited data for the four South Indian languages in the public domain. BARC provides data for the Top 5 News channels in Hindi, the four South Indian languages and English in the public domain.

    The other regional languages for which BARC releases limited data in the public domain are Assamese, Bangla, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Marathi, Oriya and Panjabi. BARC provides data for the top channels in each of these languages – these could be GECs or News or Movies, as also separate data for the Top 5 News channels in Assamese, Bangla, Oriya and Marathi. week 30 of 2020 saw viewership of Top 5 channels of Assamese, Bangla, Gujarati and Marathi grow 9.4 percent, 4.1 percent, 2.2 percent and 6.2 percent respectively. Combined viewership of the Top 5 Bhojpuri, Oriya and Panjabi channels in week 30 of 2020 fell 4.9 percent, 0.03 percent and 4.9 percent respectively as compared to the previous week.

    According to BARC data, GECs, movies, news and kids genres in that order garner around 90 percent of overall television viewership. GEC is the largest genre with about 45 percent of overall television viewership, with movies garnering between 23 to 27 percent of the viewership and the Kids genre about 7-8 percent. Post Covid2019, UNLOCK, the News genres has been garnering around 15 percent of television viewership. 

    Viewership of the Top 5 Hindi movie channels in HSM (U+R) on all platforms increased by 0.1 percent in week 30 of 2020 as compared to week 29.  The Top 5 kids channels saw combined weekly impressions grow 2.6 percent during the week under review as compared to week 29 of 2020.

    The Top 5 Hindi news channels in HSM (U+R) and the Top 5 English Nnews channels saw weekly impressions increase 3.7 percent and 12.4 percent respectively. The English news genre is a small sub-genre in terms of viewership. 

    Combined viewership of the Top 5 Assamese, Bangla, Marathi and Oriya news channels declined 9.9 percent, 4.3 percent, 6.6 percent and 0.03 percent respectively as compared to week 29. The Top 5 Kannada, Malayalam and Telugu news channels witnessed viewership dips of 18.4 percent, 2.5 percent and 3.9 percent respectively, while the Top 5 Tamil news channels saw weekly impressions increase of 7.2 percent in week 30 of 2020 as compared to week 29. 

    Hence overall viewership in terms of weekly impressions was driven mainly by Hindi GECs and channels in the four South Indian languages, with some help from the other three major television genres.

    Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres

    The Sun Tv Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV regained top spot as the most watched channel on all platforms across genres after a hiatus. All the 10 channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres in week 30 of 2020 were the same as in the previous week, with some shuffling of ranks.

    Seven Hindi GECs, two 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 Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) and one channel each from Enterr 10 Television, Sun TV Network (Sun TV) and Viacom18 in the list for Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres in week 30 of 2020.

    Please refer to the table below:

    Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres

    Nine of the channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres in week 30 of 2020 were the same as in week 29. One Star India Hindi movies channel at rank 10 – Star Gold exited the list in week 30 to be replaced by another Star India channel – Tamil GEC Star Vijay at the same rank (rank 10).

    There were three channels each from the Hindi GEC and Telugu genres, two channels from the Tamil genre and one channel each from the Kids and the Hindi movies genres in BARC weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres in week 30 of 2020. There were three channels each from Star India and Viacom18 (or associated with Viacom18 through its parent Network 18), two channels from SPN and one channel each from Sun TV and Zeel.

    Please refer to the table below:

    Top 10 FreeChannels Across Genres
    Nine 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. One channel – Enterr10 Television’s Bhojpuri channel, Bhojpuri Cinema, exited the list in week 30 of 2020 to be replaced by Zeel’s Bhojpuri channel Zee Biskope.

    There were four channels from Zeel, two channels from Viacom18 and one channel each from B4U Network, Enterr 10 Television, 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, three Hindi Movies channels and one Bhojpuri channel in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in week 29 of 2020.

    Please refer to the table below:


     

  • Zee Anmol claws to top place in Free Across Genres channels in week 29

    Zee Anmol claws to top place in Free Across Genres channels in week 29

    BENGALURU: Television viewership dipped slightly in week 29 of 2020 (Saturday, 18 July 2020 to Friday, 24 July 2020, week or period under review) according to Broadcast Audience Research Council Research on India (BARC) weekly data as compared to the previous week. BARC reported 17.3 billion impressions as Television viewership for week 29 of 2020 as compared to 17.4 billion weekly impressions during the immediate trailing week – week 28. BARC releases weekly data for the top two, three, four, five or 10 channels of a language, genre or sub-genre in the public domain. Besides, BARC also releases data for the Top 10 channels on all platforms across genres on all platform, on the pay platform and on the free platform. Similar data is also split up for the top Hindi GECs on these platforms along with further segmentation of the combined urban and rural Hindi speaking market or HSM (U+R), in HSM (U) and HSM (R). For regional and other genres such as news, languages, BARC publishes data for the top 5 or lesser channels.

    The analysis in this paper is limited to BARC data available in the public domain – the top two, three, four, five or 10 channels of the genre/sub-genre/language/platform/market.

    Despite the small dip in television ratings, GECs viewership in general seems to have continued climbing, while the News genre seems to have continued the trend of reduction in eyeballs. BARCs’ data for week 29 for the Top five channels in Assamese, Bangla, Bhojpuri, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu channels shows that their combined ratings increased as compared to week 28. Only the combined weekly ratings of the top five Gujarati and Kannada channels fell as compared to the previous week. It must be noted that some of the channels in the above genres are movie channels, news channels, etc. However, BARC does publish data in the public domain of the Top five News channels in Hindi, English, Assamese, Bangla, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Telugu and Tamil languages. The combined weekly impressions of the top 5 News channels in all these languages declined except for Bangla and Oriya News channels, which increased by 1.8 percent and 2.2 percent respectively in week 29 of 2020 as compared to week 28. The combined weekly impressions of the other two major genres – Movies (almost flat growth – increased by 0.5 percent) and Kids (declined by 4.2 percent) in week 29 of 2020 did see some changes, but not enough to make a major impact to overall weekly television viewership. These four genres – GEC, Movies, News and Kids generally constitute 90 percent of the overall television ratings according to BARC reports.

    Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres

    Since its return to DD Free Dish, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd’s second Hindi GEC Zee Anmol has seen viewership climb. The channel was ranked fourth in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels om All Platforms Across Genres in week 29 of 2020. Long time numero uno on this list – Enterr 10 Television’s Dangal had lost its peak position when many of the Hindi GECs returned to DD Free Dish a few weeks ago. Dangal was now ranked 5 in week 29 of 2020. 

    Seven Hindi GECs, two Telugu channels and one channel made up BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres in week 29 of 2020. There were 3 Star India channels, two channels each from Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and one channel each from Enterr 10 Television, Sun TV Network (Sun TV) and Viacom18 in the list for Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres in week 29 of 2020.

    Please refer to the chart below:

    Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres

    Two channels -ranked ninth and tenth in the previous week (week 28 of 2020) exited BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres in week 29 of 2020 to be replaced by Viacom18’s flagship Hindi GEC Colors and Star India’s Hindi Movies channel Star Gold. The other 8 channels in BARC’s weekly list in week 29 of 2020 were the same in the previous week, with a slight juggling of ranks. There were three channels each from the Hindi GEC and Telugu genres, two channels from the Hindi Movies and one channel each from the Kids and the Tamil genres in BARC weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres in week 29 of 2020. There were three channels each from Star India and Viacom18 (or associated with Viacom18 through its parent Network 18), two channels each from SPN and Zeel and one channel from Sun Tv.

    Please refer to the figure below:

    Top 10 FreeChannels Across Genres

    Zee Anmol clawed its way to the top spot in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in week 29 of 2020. All the channels in the weekly list for week 29 of 2020 were the same as in week 28 with some shuffling of ranks. There were 3 channels each from Viacom18 and Zeel, two channels from Enterr10 Television and one channel each from B4U Network and Star India in BARC’sweekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in week 29 of 2020. There six Hindi GECs, three Hindi movies channels and one Bhojpuri channel in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres in week 29 of 2020.

    Please refer to the chart below:


     

  • IPL, festive season expected to push up ad rev for GECs

    IPL, festive season expected to push up ad rev for GECs

    MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: After almost four months of hiatus, advertising spend is slowly inching up on TV, especially GECs, which saw shows resume some weeks ago. Experts suggest that whenever consumer behaviour sees a shift, advertising spends have also adjusted.

    Havas Media Group MD–India Mohit Joshi says that growth would have been much sharper if the unscheduled one-off lockdowns in several parts of the country had not happened. He is expecting an overall increase in TV ad revenues in the coming weeks since brands want to make the best use of the remaining five months. Not to mention that IPL is also expected to take place in the last quarter coinciding with festive season.

    DDB Mudra Group executive director and OMD Mudramax president Sathyamurthy Namakkal says that August and September will continue to be lower than the previous years, but October-December should witness some positive growth,( as compared to the previous six months), due  to optimism about a vaccine solution for Covid2019 and festival advertising needs. However, he feels that IPL is likely to impact the viewership of GECs across markets.

    They are of the opinion that while many GECs haven’t yet matched their viewership numbers pre-Covid2019, there is an improvement in viewership post the revival of original content, a few weeks ago.

    Namakkal says, “Many advertisers have moved from negative sentiment to a more neutral sentiment as manifested in the planning process that has been reactivated after a gap of three months.”

    As per TAM media research the tally of advertisers on both national and regional news channels increased by four per cent and three per cent respectively during week 29 (12 July to 18 July)  to week 30 (19 July to 25 July)  compared to week 27 (28 June to 4 July) to week 28 (5 July to 11 July).

    The data further reveals that ad volume on both national and regional news channels increased by 18 per cent and 15 per cent respectively during week 29 to week 30 compared to week 27 to week 28.

    Channels began luring its viewers back to TV after some of them shifting off GECs due to lack of content. Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) chief consumer officer Pratyusha Agarwal says, “Our comeback strategy was planned meticulously with the objective of reinstating the habit of appointment viewing for our audience across our GECs. We harnessed the power of digital and social platforms, PR, outdoor, print and the biggest asset of all, our network strength.”

    Zee TV engaged audiences with a combination of artist interviews and behind-the-scenes footage from primetime shows, building curiosity around the return of fresh programming.

    “Given that we are a video-led medium, we have continued to use video-led media as a predominant vehicle and the others being fit-to-purpose added as complimentary media. But with people not stepping out much or being a lot more careful when they step out, we are looking at in-home media a lot more with TV being our primary tool,” shares Agarwal.

    Dangal was the first channel which started airing fresh content from 2 July. Enterr10 Television (Dangal TV) COO Deep Drona shares, “An interesting part was that during lockdown a lot of sampling has happened by fresh viewers. We need to see if they change habits or go back as pause and play viewers.”

    However, Zee TV launched a mega OOH campaign announcing the resumption of its shows. On the other hand, Dangal will not be taking up OOH anytime soon. But, Dangal has increased its digital footprint in order to communicate with its prime audience in tier I and tier II cities.

    According to the tenth edition of BARC-Nielsen data, since 11 April total television consumption increased by 40 per cent. The data also reveals that news and movies continue to grow. April onwards, news has registered 16 per cent growth while GEC from 52 per cent from pre-Covid2019 is now steady at 44 per cent.

    The major revelation is that re-run driven Hindi GECs obtained all-time viewership high post exit from DD Free Dish. In fact, April onwards, overall FCT observed seven per cent growth. There is a significant growth in FCT across news, movies and kids genre. Major FMCG companies continue to advertise on GECs along with some new players.

    Even though news channels became the viewers’ darling for the last few months, Namakkal feels that it will continue to get its regular loyal advertisers. To this, Joshi says, “Each genre has a role to play in the plan. News has seen a lot of surge in viewership. Even today, this continues to be at a higher than pre-Covid2019 levels. Given their performance, their role as a reach driver in the plan has further been consolidated.”

    As primetime viewership starts to return to normalcy, advertiser spends will follow suit.

  • Larger networks takeover free Across Genres list as Star Utsav tops All Platforms

    Larger networks takeover free Across Genres list as Star Utsav tops All Platforms

    BENGALURU: Among the bigger networks that have channels feature in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly lists of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms, on the Pay and Free Platforms are DD, Network18/TV18/Viacom18 (or simply Viacom18) Star India, Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN), The Sun TV Network (Sun Network), and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (Zeel).  Many of the channels from these networks, as well as other networks were now available on Pay and Free Platforms, on the latter mainly because of their presence on Prasar Bharati’s free DTH service DD Free Dish.

    Until recently, channels from these bigger networks found places mostly in BARC’s weekly lists of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms and on the Pay Platform. And until the advent of the Covid2019 Lockdown, there were generally one to four channels from two major networks/groups that were present in BARC’s weekly lists of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres. These two are pubcaster Doordarshan and channels from or associated with the Essel group’s Zeel. Initially, DD was represented by only one of its channels, DD Sports, and that too for only the first three weeks of 2020. Zeel was represented by four of its channels in BARC’s weekly lists of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres lists– Big Magic (Hindi GEC), Big Ganga (Bhojpuri GEC), Zee Biskope (Bhojpuri Cinema) and Zing (Youth). Only Big Magic was present during all the first 12 weeks of BARC’s Free Across Genres weekly lists. As a matter of fact, Big Magic was present during all the first 26 weeks of these BARC weekly lists of the Top Free Channels Across. Besides Big Magic, normally there were at least two other Zeel channels and sometimes even three that were present in the weekly Free Channels Across Genres lists during the first 12 weeks of 2020. But, at the same time, least six of the channels were from the smaller networks such as Enterr 10 Television and B4U Network. Enterr 10 had three to four of its channels in each of the first 12 weekly Free Platform lists, while B4U had two or three of its channels in the lists during the same period. Enterr 10’s channels included Bhojpuri Cinema, Dangal, Fakt Marathi and Enterr 10, while B4U’s channels were B4U Bhojpuri, B4U Kadak and B4U Movies.

    Week 13 of 2020, the first week of the Covid2019 Lockdown had four channels– one channel from DD and three channels from Zeel, with five channels from Enterr 10 (three channels) and B4U (two channels). The India Today group’s flagship Hindi News channel Aaj Tak entered BARC’s Across Genres weekly lists for the first time, in two Across Genres lists – Across Genres on All Platforms and Across Genres Free Platform.  In the absence of fresh programming, DD National started airing some of its library shows that had been very popular in the previous century, in Week 12 of 2020. These included Ramanad Sagar’s Ramayan and B R Chopra’s Mahabharat along with a number of other classics from its library. In Week 13, DD National became the most watched channel across genres on All Platforms and the Pay Platform and was also present in the Free Platform Across Genres list. DD National continued in the top 10 Across Genres lists until Week 18 2020. Week 14 saw DD Bharti enter BARC’s weekly list of Top Free Channels Across genres. The split was now five channels each between the bigger and other networks. And this split continued on till Week 22 of 2020. Weeks’ 23, 24, 25 and 26 of 2020 saw ratio of Bigger Networks: Other Networks at 7:3, 7:3, 8:2 and 7:3 respectively. Data for Week 26 of 2020 (Saturday, 27 June 2020 to Friday, 3 July 2020) is available at the time of writing of this paper. In Week 14 of 2020, the bigger networks were the same as in previous weeks – DD with two channels and Zeel with three channels. Similarly, the other networks mix was the same – Enterr 10 Television had three channels in the list while B4U Network had two channels. DD Bharti exited the Top 10 Free Across Genres list in Week 20, and DD National exited it in Week 24. For Weeks 20 and 21, there were 4 Zeel channels in the list, three channels from Enterr 10, 2 from B4U and one from DD. 

    In Week 23, two channels, one each from SPN and Star India and two Vaicom18 channels replaced two Zeel channels and one channel each from B4U Network and Enterr 10 Television in the list. Post Week 22 of 2020, channels from these major networks have continued their presence in BARC’s Weekly list of Top Free Channels Across Genres lists at the cost of B4U Networks and Enterr 10 Television. The bigger networks have taken over BARC’s weekly lists of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres. 

    Television consumption in terms of minutes, average time spent and reach has been declining from the highs of the lockdown weeks. Getting their second rung Hindi GEC and Movies channels on DD’s free DTH platform Free Dish is probably the best thing that the four major networks SPN, Star India, Viacom18 and Zeel could have done from viewership growth point of view is concerned. Analysis of BARC data in the public domain shows that 51.6 percent of Star Utsav’s viewership was on the Free Platform. In The case of Zee Anmol, Rishtey Cineplex and Sony Pay, viewership on the Free Platform was even higher. Channels such as Dangal which has seen viewership decline with the advent of Hindi GECs’ from the major networks in recent weeks had almost 70 percent of its viewership on the free platform in Week 26 of 2020.

    Besides, as stated above, GEC share of viewership has increased from the lows of the Covid2019 lockdown period. Please refer to the chart below:

    Hindi GECs have seen viewership growth on the Free Platform and in Rural Markets

    As mentioned above, these channels have re-joined Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) Top 10 channels weekly lists on All Platforms and on the Pay and Free Platforms or have jumped up ranks in in general in their respective genres in the Hindi Speaking Market (HSM), be it the combined urban and rural – HSM (U+R) or HSM (U) or HSM (R) over the past few weeks. After a slow and steady decline that started in Week 15 and continued in Weeks 17 to 22 of 2020 as compared to the immediate trailing week. Combined weekly impressions of the Top 10 Hindi GEC’s on All Platforms in HSM (U+R) have now grown week on week. Weeks 23, 24, 25 and 26 of 2020 saw viewership of the Top 10 Hindi GECs’ in HSM (U+R) grow by 4.9, 6.9, 4.4 and 2.5 percent respectively. 

    The BARC-Nielsen yardstick is the average data between Weeks 2 to 4 of 2020. Using this reference point, the combined weekly impressions of Top 10 Hindi GECs’ in HSM (U+R) have been consistently increasing starting Week 13 of 2020, except for a small fall of 0.3 percent in Week 22. Until Week 26 of 2020, consumption of the Top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) in terms of weekly impressions has increased by 18.7 percent as compared to the Weeks two to four average and by 14 percent as compared to Week 1 of 2020. This growth has been led by the Free Hindi GECs and by the rural market or HSM (R) according to BARC data for the Top 10 Hindi GECs on the Free and Pay Platforms and in HSM (U+R), HSM (U) and HSM (R). 
    Exact comparison has not been done based BARC data because until Week 15 of 2020, BARC only listed the Top 9 Channels in HSM (R) and for the Free Platform in the public domain. But, considering the viewership growth of the Top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U+R) of 18.7 percent in Week 26 of 2020, viewership of Top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U) has increased by just 1.8 percent with respect to the average of Weeks 2- 4 of 2020. In the same period viewership of Top 10 Hindi GECs on the Pay Platform has declined by 2.1 percent, as compared to the average of the Top 10 channels in Weeks 2 to 4 of 2020.

    The increase in viewership of GECs is also evident from the figure below based on BARC-Nielsen data for the top four most watched genres below. As is obvious the share of GEC viewership has started increasing and has come up to 48 percent in Week 26 of 2020 from the lows (40 percent) of the Covid2019 weeks, but has still to touch or exceed the pre-Covid2019 period’s 52 percent.

    Some other trends in Top 10 Channels Across Genres lists in Week 26 of 2020

    26 channels have appeared in BARC’s weekly lists of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres lists during the first 26 weeks of 2020. Of these 26, only three channels – Dangal, Sony Sab and Sun TV have appeared consistently in the lists during all the 26 weeks. Among the frontline channels – Star Plus was present in the list for 21 weeks, followed by its Telugu Sibling Star Maa, which was present for 20 of 26 weeks in the lists. Weeks 25 and 26 of BARC’s weekly lists of Top 10 Channels Across Genres saw Star India’s Hindi GEC Star Utsav at rank no 1.

    20 channels appeared in BARC’s weekly lists of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres lists during the first 26 weeks of 2020. Here also only three channels appeared in the lists for all the 26 weeks – they were Sony SAB, Star Maa and Sun TV. Sun TV has been consistently ranked 1 during all the 26 weeks to date in this list.

    22 channels appeared in BARC’s weekly lists of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres lists during the first 26 weeks of 2020. Here also only three channels appeared in the lists for all the 26 weeks – they were Dangal, Big Magic and B4U Kadak. Dangal has been consistently ranked 1 during all the 26 weeks to date in this list. Please refer to the figure below:


     

  • Sun TV back on top as Star Utsav becomes most-watched Hindi GEC across genres

    Sun TV back on top as Star Utsav becomes most-watched Hindi GEC across genres

    BENGALURU: In a week that saw news channels grab eyeballs with their coverage and debates and discussions post the Indo-China Gawlan Valley skirmish, the Sun Tv Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV regained its numero uno position in Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) list of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres. BARC weekly data for Week 24 of 2020 (Saturday, 13 June 2020 to Friday, 19 June 2020, week or period under review)In calendar year 2020, Sun TV had last headed BARC’s Weekly lists of Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres in Week 2 of 2020. 

    Week 24 of 2020 saw TV consumption increase by about 1.2 percent week-on-week to 16.5 billion weekly impressions from 16.3 billion weekly impressions in Week 23.The increase in television consumption in Week 24 of 2020 was 13.8 percent higher than the consumption of 14.5 billion weekly impressions in Week 4, which has been considered as the base Pre-COVID2019 week here. Though a lot of the increased viewership was garnered by news channels in Week 24 of 2020, Hindi GECs also saw viewership grow.

    Ratings agencies BARC and Nielsen have set the average viewership data between Weeks 2 and 4 of 2020 as the yardstick to measure television consumption trends during COVID-19 weeks. While the lockdown in India commenced on 25 March 2020, which was midweek of Week 12 of 2020, BARC-Nielsen Covid2019 reports are available for weeks between Weeks 11 and 18 of 2020 at the time of writing of this paper. As mentioned above, the author has considered Week 4 of 2020 as the reference week here. Please refer to the figure below for TV viewership trends over the past few weeks.

    The combined weekly impressions of the Top 10 Free channels Across Genres increased 19.6 percent in Week 24 of 2020 as compared to the previous week, while at the same time, the combined weekly impressions of the Top 10 Channels on All Platforms Across Genres was almost flat (increased by 0.5 percent). Combined weekly impressions of the Top 10 Pay channels declined 2.5 percent in Week 24 of 2020 as compared to the previous week.

    The week under review also saw Star India’s Hindi GEC Star Utsav climb to second place in BARC’s Weekly lists of Top 10 channels on All Platforms and find a place in all the three BARC across genres lists. Dangal slipped a couple of ranks to third place in BARC’s across genres on all platforms list, but continued to head BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free Channels Across Genres.

    Please refer to the chart below:

    While the Top 10 Hindi GECs in the HSM (U+R) market saw consumption spike 6.9 percent in Week 24 of 2020 as compared to Week 23, the Top 5 Hindi movie channels saw consumption dip 2.6 percent in terms of weekly impressions. The combined weekly impressions of the Top 10 Hindi GEC in HSM (U+R) on All Platforms increased 6.9 percent and those of the Free Platform increased 27.3 percent in Week 24 of 2020 as compared to the previous week. The combined weekly impressions of the Top 10 Hindi GECs’ on the Pay Platform declined 3.5 percent during the same period. Growth was driven by the HSM (R) which saw the combined weekly impressions increase 12.4 percent as compared to flat growth in the combined weekly impressions in HSM (U).
     

  • Viewership dynamics changing in Unlock 1.0? Hindi GEC viewership grows on DD Free Dish?

    Viewership dynamics changing in Unlock 1.0? Hindi GEC viewership grows on DD Free Dish?

    BENGALURU: Television consumption decreased slightly (reduced 0.6 percent) in Week 23 of 2020 (Saturday, 6 June 2020 to Friday, 12 June 2020) to 16.3 billion weekly impressions as compared to the previous week which had scored 16.4 billion weekly impressions according to Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) weekly data. BARC had reported viewership of 16.3 billion impressions for week 21 of 2020. This number is still 12.4 percent higher than the viewership of 14.5 billion impressions reported for week four of 2020.

    BARC and Nielsen have set the average viewership data between weeks two and four of 2020 as the yardstick to measure television consumption trends during Covid2019 weeks. While the lockdown in India commenced on 25 March 2020, which was midweek of week 12 of 2020, BARC-Nielsen Covid2019 reports are available for weeks between weeks 11 and 18 of 2020 at the time of writing of this paper. The author has considered week four of 2020 as the reference week here.

    GECs have shown growth in viewership. Is it because a number of them, more so Hindi GECs and movies channels, have returned to DD Free Dish’s fold? Quite likely.

    This paper must be read with caveats. The conclusions are based on BARC weekly data in the public domain which comprises of the combined weekly impressions of the top two, three, five or 10 channels of each genre/sub-genre/platform or across genres.  The author has used the combined weekly impressions of the Top ten, five, three or two channels of the genre sub/genre during different weeks for comparison and the conclusions in this paper are limited to that extent. Further, the channels listed in BARC’s weekly lists needn’t be the same week-on-week. The comparison of combined weekly for all the weeks mentioned in this paper is meant for genre/sub-genre/platform comparison, not any individual channel (if named anywhere in this paper). In some cases, viewership in terms of combined weekly impressions of the week under review and week four is not comparable because the number of channels in BARC’s weekly lists of the respective genres/sub-genres/platforms during the two periods were not same. Probably BARC watermarks were provided for some of the channels after week four of 2020.

    For Hindi GECs, BARC provides data for the Top 10 Hindi GECs in a combination  of the urban and rural Hindi speaking markets or HSM (U+R) on all platforms; HSM (U+R) on the pay platform; HSM (U+R) on the free platform; HSM (R) on all platforms; and on HSM (U) on all platforms. It also provides data for Hindi movies in these five segmentations. It must be noted that as per BARC, HSM includes the All India market minus the south Indian markets of Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. 

    In the case of regional channels, BARC provides data for the top five Assamese, Bangla, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi channels as also for the four south Indian languages – Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu. Many of the channels included in the respective lists of top five regional channels are from mixed genres – these could be news, music, movies, infotainment and spiritual channels. In many of the cases, it is often the news segment/programme of the GEC that is amongst BARC’s weekly list of top five programmes which is probably one of the reasons why a channel landed up in BARC’s top five channels list for that language in the first place. However, BARC’s top five lists of languages such as Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Assamese, Bangla and Marathi have a channel mix that consists mainly of GECs and movies that run mainly GEC and/or movies content. 

    In the pre-Covid2019 weeks, four genres had 89 percent of television viewership share – in terms of size, they are GEC, movies, news and the kids genres.  The viewership share of these genres grew to 93 percent in week 18 of 2020 as per the 8th edition of the BARC-Nielsen report for week 18 of 2020. Please refer to the figure below:

    Overall, GEC had 52 percent viewership share in the pre-Covid2019 lockdown weeks. In the absence of fresh content, as well as stiff competition from news and movies channels, GEC viewership share declined to about 40 percent of total television consumption in week 13 of 2020 when there was huge growth in overall television consumption due to the various phases of the lockdowns in India. Considering the larger television consumption, more people preferred watching the news and movies genres, as well as the kids genre. Many GECs run movies on a regular schedule. Post the first few weeks of the Covid2019 lockdown, when the movies genre showed viewership growth, many GECs, more so in south India, started airing movies, and most still continue to do so. This helped perk up the viewership of GECs to grow.

    The Hindi GEC genre has a large combined viewership as compared to the all the other languages. BARC’s weekly lists of the top 10 Hindi GECs' growth was led by the HSM (R) market and the free platform in week 23 of 2020 as compared to week 21. Also, a number of second rung Hindi GECs and movie channels returned to DD Free Dish in June 2020. The reach and television consumption on the government’s free DTH service has brought back channels such as Sony Pal, Star Utsav, Colors Rishtey an Rishtey Cineplus back into BARC’s weekly lists of top five or 10 channels in their respective genres and across genres lists.

    The combined viewership of the top 10 Hindi GECs on All Platforms grew 4.1 percent in week 23 of 2020 as compared to the previous week. Consumption of the Top 10 Hindi GECs in the urban Hindi Speaking Market or HSM (U) in week 23 of 2020 was almost flat as compared to the previous week. Consumption of the Top 10 Hindi GECs in HSM (U) grew just 0.8 percent as against the 10.9 percent growth in the rural hindi speaking market or HSM (R) in the period under review as compared to the previous week. Consumption of the Top 10 Hindi GECs on the free platform grew 21.1 percent in Week 23 of 2020 as compared to the Week 22. TV consumption of the top 10 Hindi GECs on the pay platform grew 1.5 percent in week under review as compared to the previous week. 

    Viewership growth was witnessed by the top five Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam and Bangla channels. Except for Tamil, the other three witnessed viewership growth in at lest three of the top 5 channels. In the case of Tamil, the Sun Tv Network’s flagship Tamil GEC Sun TV had major growth in Week 23 of 2020, with Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd's Tamil flagship channel Zee Tamil showing a small amount of growth as compared to week 22. The other three channels in BARC’s weekly list of top five Tamil channels showed decline in viewership in terms of weekly impressions in week 23 of 2020 as compared to the previous week.

    Another indicator that Hindi GECs could have grown is BARC’s weekly lists of top 10 channels across genres – BARC has segmented across genres to the top 10 channels across genres on all platforms, on the pay platform and the free platform. Though the combined weekly impressions of the top 10 channels across genres on all platforms in week 23 of 2020 were almost the same (grew 0.3 percent) as compared to the previous week, a Hindi GEC replaced a Telugu channel in the weekly list during the week under review. Though the combined weekly impressions of BARC's weekly list of top 10 channels on the free platform in week 23 of 2020 declined 1.4 percent as compared to the previous week, two Hindi GECs entered the list at the cost of a Hindi movies and Bhojpuri channels. One more Hindi GEC that entered the free platform across genres list replaced another Hindi GEC. 

    The Hindi movies genre showed flat growth (combined weekly impressions of top 5 movies channels on all platforms de-grew by 0.7 percent) in week 23 of 2020 as compared to week 21. Combined weekly impressions of top 5 Hindi movies channels in HSM (U) was flat, while those in HSM (R) saw a growth of 1.9 percent in week 23 of 2020 as compared to the previous week. Combined weekly impressions of the top 5 Hindi movies on the free platform grew 6.3 percent, while on the pay platform they grew by 0.2 percent (almost flat growth).

    Further, unlike the previous weeks, news channels lost viewership if BARC’s weekly data for Top 5 Assamese, Bangla, Hindi, English, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Tamil and Telugu News channels for week 23 of 2020 is considered. The Top 5 Kannada news channels seems to be the only news genre that has bucked the trend, combined viewership of the Top 5 Kannada channels grew by a phenomenal 48.7 percent in week 23 of 2020 as compared to the previous week. In is worth noting that three of the Top 5 Tamil programmes in week 23 of 2020 were Tamil films on Sun TV, the other two were non-film GEC shows.

    Another major genre-the kids genre has shown growth, going by BARC data of the top 5 kids channels for weeks 23 and 22 of 2020 – week 23 of 2020 saw weekly impressions of top 5 kids channels grow by four percent as compared to the previous week. The combine weekly impressions of top five channels of the other genres which saw growth during the week under review as compared to the previous week were music (7.7 percent growth); English entertainment (21.2 percent growth); sports (5.7 percent growth) and infotainment (1.2 percent growth). The overall viewership share of these genres is in single digits percentage.

  • Two new shows mark Zee Telugu’s fifteenth anniversary

    Two new shows mark Zee Telugu’s fifteenth anniversary

    MUMBAI: Zee Telugu, the Telugu general entertainment channel from Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL), is celebrating 15 years of its launch. Launched on 18 May 2005, Zee Telugu was the first entrant from the Zee bouquet to enter south India. Zee Telugu offers a variety of shows that cater to the entertainment needs of over 75 million Telugu audiences across India. From fiction shows to reality shows and talk shows, the channel has multi-genre offerings.

    It has been an extraordinary journey for the channel thus far, says Zee Telugu and Zee Cinemalu business head Anuradha Gudur, in an interview with Indiantelevision.com. Today, the channel commands a 24.7 per cent of the Telugu GEC share.

    The Covid2019 pandemic affected Zee Telugu like all other entertainment channels. “This has been by far the most challenging year for the channel and probably so for most other channels. To stay connected to the audience, we’re offering curated content to the audience. We have launched fresh content during the fifteenth anniversary. The first one is Queen, directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon. It features a lot of Telugu stalwarts like Ramya, Tulasi, and a few other well-known names in the Telugu industry like Sonia Aggarwal,” she said.

    Queen is an Inspiring story of a young actress who goes on to become the youngest chief minister of Tamil Nadu, and Amrutham is an iconic comic classic.

    The second launch, said Anuradha, is the iconic comic classic Amrutham. “Amrutham like honey doesn’t go old with age and has stood the test of time and so we have brought it back this time when people need reasons to laugh. So we thought it appropriate to entertain the audience. Both are iconic and will engage and entertain the audience and are best suited for this lockdown period.”

    And how has the channel been coping with the lockdown? “As the production has completely been stalled we have been exploring how to connect to the audience. First of all, there has been a shift in audience preference. There is an increase in male viewers and children who are consuming content. So we showed a good combination of movies that appeal to the audience. Movies contribution across channels has moved up from 32 per cent to almost 50 per cent. As I mentioned earlier, we are looking at fresh content. We have launched Queen and Amrutham in prime time from 18 May. We also have anchor Ravi hosting a new show called Lockdown talks.”

    She expressed hope that in June the channel should be able to resume the serials.

    The GEC has seen prominent brands advertising for its new shows. “For Queen at 8 pm we have P&G and the title is sponsored by Cinthol, and co-presented by Meera Shampoo and Sunflower detergent. Amrutham at 8:30 is co-powered by Head & Shoulders,” she said.

    The channel has been marketing the shows on its network channels.  “We are promoting on Zee Telugu, Zee Cinemalu and on news channels, in addition to aggressive campaigns across all social media platforms. Through PR campaigns we have planned interviews with Gautam Menon and Ramya Krishna for print, online and radio,” she said.  

    Zee Telugu has marked another milestone with the completion of 10 years of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa with successful 12 seasons. Anuradha said that Sa Re Ga Ma Pa as a brand has a huge connect across all regions, especially in Telugu-speaking states. “We have been a launching pad for many singers such as Revanth, Damini, Shanmuga, Priya Sahithi, Anudeep, Sai Charan, etc.”

    Over the years, Zee Telugu’s reality shows have created a unique platform to nurture the talent.  “The audience has a strong association with reality shows, be it shows like ‘Gold Rush’ or ‘Gadasari Atha – Sogasari Kodalu’, ‘Koncham Touch Lo Unte Cheptha’, etc. Through all these years, we have formed a connection with the audience for being a platform for a lot of young talents, be it singing, dancing or acting. In the initial years of the channel, we were often called the Aata channel. Now we also have a lot of child stars being featured in many films,” she said.

  • Cable operators seek discounted tariffs from pay channels

    Cable operators seek discounted tariffs from pay channels

    MUMBAI: Maharashtra Cable Operators' Foundation (MCOF) has requested Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) to urge its members – the pay channels – to offer discounted pay tariffs, if not waiving them altogether, for a period of four months from 20 April to 20 August.

    The MCOF has primarily cited two reasons for making this request. First, there has been no original content for the past two months. Second is the subscribers’ inability to pay for the channels.

    In a letter addressed to IBF president NP Singh, the MCOF stated that the request is specifically regarding IBF members that operate pay channels with monthly tariff ranging from Rs 10 to Rs 19 for SD feed and variable extra for HD feed.  

    “Our subscribers have been pointing out that all the channels have been recycling programmes for close to two months. Further, no one is in a position to assure as to when fresh programmes will be aired. Same is the case with sports and movie channels, which will be slower in offering fresh content as compared to GECs and other genres,” said the letter.

    MCOF further stated: “The subscribers therefore will either discontinue these channels on their own, or we as the last-mile link will be compelled to do so since MSOs are pressuring us to pay upfront when our subscribers are unable to pay. We therefore believe that it would be in everyone's interests that pay channels offer steeply discounted pay tariffs, if not waive it altogether for a period of four months.”

    The situation, said the MCOF, may be reviewed in mid-July and a suitable call be taken in respect of “GECs as a class distinct from sports and movie channels.” The cable federation expressed hope that this “ethical action” will not only create goodwill with subscribers but also retain customers for the channels to ensure that advertising income does not go down much.

    “We hope that you will appreciate the fact we too will be sacrificing our marketing fee and yet are willing to do so in the interests of the entire value chain. We hope to receive an early revert in mutual interests,” concluded the letter.