ITV

Tag: Janata Curfew

  • News ratings on the decline as lockdown eases

    News ratings on the decline as lockdown eases

    BENGALURU: News is event-driven. Events drive up viewership of news channels. Elections, disasters, pandemics send news channels into a frenzy.  Coverage, debates, breaking news …., the rapid staccato oratory, hyperbole, events dissected from different angles often leaving messy dregs of the matter, all these antics drive viewership up. Now to the cliché. No other event in television history has affected humanity as the advent of Covid2019 or COVID-19 as most call it. 

    The pandemic that this virus has caused has resulted in the largest lockdown in human memory. People stayed at home, worked from there, for there and at there. Commutes to anywhere were suddenly recent memory. Movie halls closed, business, sporting and other entertainment events were canceled as humanity sought shelter in the precincts of home. World economy, economy of countries and states and cities and places took a nosedive as manufacturing, all business, all economic activitiesalmost completely halted. The stock markets, of course, did function and they too went into steep falls, and then recovered with each bit of ‘positive’ news, but they are nowhere near the highs’ of just a few months ago.

    The time saved from commuting and the spare time culminated into television, media and entertainment consumption binges like never before. And the shortage of surrealism that soaps created, because fresh content was not being produced, led to viewership increases of channels and genres that had never ever experienced the kinds of viewership peaks that they did during the COVID2019 weeks. News, movies, mythology, classics were tried and tested as the media and entertainment industry tried to offer apprehensive audiences some solace, some time away from reality. Television viewership, reach, average time spent (ATS) rose probably like never before. GECs’ lost viewership share to News and Movies channels, but quickly regained some of the lost eyeballs by airing movies, mythology and classics. Pubcaster network Doordarshan or DD made a viewership coup, a killing of sorts, by airing the original Ramanand Sagar made Ramayanand the B R Chopra made Mahabharat as well as classics from the late eighties and nineties of the previous century. 

    Many celebrities including heads and leaders of a few nations contracted the virus. A few succumbed to it. People wanted to know what was happening. Am I safe? Are my family, my parents, my elders, my siblings, my siblings, my pals safe? Could humanity survive the pandemic? Was there a cure, was there a vaccine? News consumption on the ‘idiot box’, on the smart phone, on the laptop or a digital computing device exploded. News on newspapers was often a no-no as some people feared contracting the virus by touching the surface of the newspaper that has to go through so many hands before it is delivered for the reading over a breakfast or a ‘cuppa’. 

    Overall news consumption on television trebled to 21 per cent of total television consumption in Week 13 of 2020 as compared to the average consumption between weeks 2 and 4 of 2020 according to Broadcast Audience Research Council of India and Nielsen (BARC-Nielsen) Reports. This was the first full week of the All India Lockdown, or Lockdown 1.0 as it is now called, that commenced on 25 March 2020, which by the way, was just after midway into Week 12 of 2020. BARC-Nielsen have standardized the average data for weeks 2 and 4 of 2020 as the Pre-COVID-19 reference point in their reports.

    Week 12 by itself saw Television News viewership surge past the normal – this was the week in which India had the Janata Curfew first and then the announcement of the first All India lockdown by prime minister Narendra Modi. Now a digression – Modi has been one of the biggest viewership draws for News Television, and every time he appeared on television during the lockdown weeks, television consumption lineswent completely off even the new charts!

    Please refer to the chart below for Viewership data of the 5 Addresses that Prime Minister Modi has made to the Nation pertaining to COVID-19 (COVID2019) until the time of writing of this paper.

    News Television ratings rose phenomenally in the week leading to and during the lockdown period. Overtime, as Indians got used to the idea that staying at home was the one option that would keep them safe from the disease, television viewership started petering down. Events that were out of normal resulted in small spikes in the already ballooned viewership. The chart below shows viewership data of Top 5 News channels for nine of the ten languages for which BARC provides on a weekly basis for Week 1 to 19 of 2020. To make things easier, the author has combined viewership of top 5 News channels in Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu News channels into South India, and the combined viewership of Top 5 News channels in Assamese, Bangla, Marathi and Oriya into Regional India. 

    Per capita news consumption in South India and other regional markets is higher than in the overall Hindi Speaking Market or HSM. BARC defines HRM as All India excluding the South Indian states of Karnataka (Kannada); Kerala (Malayalam); Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (Tamil); and Andhra Pradesh and Telangana (Telugu). TV penetration in South India is also higher than the rest of the country. 

    As is obvious from the viewership trends of the Top 5 Channels from the chart below, News consumption in the country in the weeks after Week 13 of 2020 is lower. 

    Using the BARC-Nielsen base of average data for Week 2 to 4 of 2020, the All India average for the combined weekly impressions of Top 5 channels for 10 languages (nine mentioned above and English) works out to 1,338.614 billion weekly impressions. As is obvious from the viewership trends of the Top 5 Channels from the chart below, News consumption in the country in the weeks after Week 13 of 2020 is lower. 

    Week 12 of 2020 saw the highest consumption of television news across India until the writing of this paper at 5,203.690 million weekly impressions or 388 per cent of the pre-COVID-19 weeks average. This was followed by Week 13 of 2020 with 4,558.658 combined weekly impressions of the top five channels in 10 languages, or about 341 per cent of the pre-COVID-19 week’s average.

    Week 18 saw All India News viewership of top 5 channels of the 10 languages drop to 3,499.652 million weekly impressions or 261 per cent of the pre-COVID-19 weeks average. Week 19 of 2020 has seen a further drop to 3,357.073 million weekly impressions or 251 per cent of the pre-COVID-19 weeks average.

    Economic stagnations and declines have forced governments across the world to slowly recommence trade, businesses, at least within their own boundaries in a limited way with a number of restrictions. As humans slowly restart work and start and learn to adapt, there will be less and less time for television consumption. At present, a lot of people across the globe, including Indians, are still continuing to work from home. And as a matter of fact, the so called ‘new normal’ which has yet to take a definite shape, may enclose work at home for many businesses and services. The world is likely to work quite differently at least until the pandemic dies out, or there is a cure for it or there is a vaccine or maybe all the three or some other combination of these options and or new ones. Media and Entertainment consumption, which includes news is likely to be quite high, higher anyway that during the pre-COVID-19 period.
     

  • Is television viewership petering out as India adjusts to lockdown?

    Is television viewership petering out as India adjusts to lockdown?

    BENGALURU: Television consumption in India seems to be petering out, according to Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC)-Nielsen Reports. Of course, even in the sixth week and the second extension of the national lockdown to lockdown 3.0, television consumption is 29 per cent higher than during pre-Covid2019 periods. BARC and Nielsen have compared data for the pre-Covid2019 period with average numbers for Weeks 2 to 4 of 2020. Television consumption had peaked in Week 13 of 2020, the first full week since the lockdown commenced in the middle of Week 12 of 2020, on 25 March 2020 in India. Television consumption grew 43 per cent in Week 13 of 2020 as compared to the pre-Covid2019 period. BARC-Nielsen reports are available for the period starting Week 11 of 2020 until Week 17 at the time of writing of this paper.

    Please refer to the figure below for All-India television consumption trends.

    The basic currency for total television consumption is trillion minutes. Average television viewership during the pre-Covid2019 weeks considered in the BARC-Nielsen Reports (Average of Weeks 2 to 4 of 2020) was 887 billion minutes with an average daily reach of 560 million. This worked out to a daily average time spent (ATS) watching television of 3 hours 46 minutes. In Week 13 of 2020, this peaked to 1,266 billion minutes with a reach of 627 million and ATS of 4 hours and 48 minutes.  These numbers have been sliding down since then. Please refer to the figure below.

    In the pre-Covid2019 weeks, four genres had 89 per cent of viewership share – in terms of size, they are GEC, Movies, News and the Kids genres.  During the 7 weeks for which BARC-Nielsen Reports are available (Weeks 11 to 17 of 2020) at the time of writing this report, their combined share grew to 93 per cent. During the pre-Covid2019 weeks considered in the BARC-Nielsen Report (Weeks 2 to 4 of 2020) GEC had the largest viewership share of 52 per cent, followed by Movies with 23 per cent, the news and the kids’ genres with 7 per cent each. During Week 13 of 2020, this had changed to 40 per cent for GEC, 29 per cent for Movies, 18 per cent for news and 7 per cent for Kids. It must be noted that though share of the Kids channels was has generally been steady, overall television viewership has gone up during the lockdown period, and hence the number of viewers and ATS on the Kids was much higher than earlier times. It must further be noted that News had a share of 21 per cent in Week 13 of 2020.

    GECs, which had been experiencing a decline in viewership share during the Covid2019 lockdown due to the lack of fresh programming, got a breath of fresh air by way of re-runs of mythology and old classics on pubcaster network DD’s DD National and DD Bharati.  GECs’ viewership share has climbed to 44 per cent in weeks 16 and 17 from a low of 39 per cent in Week 12. The Movies genre seems to have stabilized at abut 27 per cent share as compared to the 23 per cent share during the pre-Covid2019 weeks considered in the BARC-Nielsen Reports.

    Please refer to the figure below:

    Overall, television consumption seems to be petering out slowly across the other major genres also.  Besides the four genres mentioned above, business news, youth, infotainment and lifestyle have witnessed changes in consumption growth. Relatively, the lifestyle genre seems to have had stabilized with about 32 per cent growth since week 13 of 2020 as compared to the average of the pre-Covid2019 weeks considered by BARC-Nielsen. The news genre, which had seen consumption triple in week 12, has stabilized consumption at around 165% growth in Weeks 16 and 17 of 2020 as compared to the average of the pre- Covid2019 weeks. Please refer to the figure below:

    BARC considers the Hindi Speaking Market or HSM as All India minus the four Southern Languages: Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu. The South is a mature market with a higher penetration of television as compared to the HSM. Television consumption is also higher in the South. Hence, growth in the South market has been more muted as compared to the HSM during the lockdown weeks to date as compared to the average of the BARC-Nielsen Covid2019 weeks. The North Eastern states saw television consumption peak in week 12 itself – this was the week when the Janata Curfew and a couple of days later the first series of Lockdown or Lockdown 1.0 were announced by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.  Most of the states saw viewership peak in Week 13. The exceptions were a few states where more of local ‘Covid2019’ and or/or events such as the lynching of the Sadhus in Maharashtra or the swearing in of ministers in Madhya Pradesh. There has been a general decline in television consumption since then, as mentioned before. Please refer to the figure below:

    Further, as mentioned above, South India has seen lower growth in viewership during the lockdown weeks because of its higher base and longer ATS spent even before the Covid2019 lockdown weeks. Hence the decline in television viewership since the peak has been lower in the South markets as compared to HSM. Please refer to the figure below:

    Is this the way forward?

    Television networks have tried to bring in viewership and maintain viewer stickiness. News by itself has grown as a genre because of the playout of events around the lockdown. Taking a cue from the movies genre, many networks have started beaming film-based content, but this has not been enough. The South GECs have witnessed growth on the back of comedy films over the last few days. Channels have brought back mythology and classics. Reruns of the Ramanand Sagar Ramayan and the B R Chopra Mahabharat, through daily episodes as opposed to the weekend episodes that were experienced when these magnum opuses were first aired, have brought in viewers and ensured their loyalty in the case of DD National and DD Bharati. Since mythology seems to have worked for DD, private networks have decided to include them in their programming mix. This seems to have worked to an extent in the case of Star Plus which launched of Ramayan in Week 17, and that slot for the channel has seen viewership grow by 65 per cent according to a preview of data by BARC for Week 18. Viacom18’s flagship Hindi GEC Colors has seen viewership growth of 24 per cent in Week 18 for the time slot when it commenced airing Mahabharat.

    It is still early days for a cure or vaccine for the pandemic to make things easier for humans, to bring back some form of normalcy. A lot more people will continue to stay at home. As the world and India slowly limp back in a phased manner to a ‘new normal’ from the Covid2019 lockdown, fresh content will surely be produced. However, given the circumstances globally, the ‘new normal’ has yet to take on a definite shape. If study, work, exercise, etc. from the home becomes the ‘new normal’, then ‘entertainment consumption at home’ is definitely set to be a big part of daily life. Content viewership from home, be it on the OTT platform, or the idiot box, or on the smart phone or a computing device, is definitely set to be much larger than during the pre-Covid2019 weeks. The question is“Will it be higher than during lockdown weeks?”