BENGALURU: Week 13 of 2020 was a peak week in terms of television viewership which had climbed to an all-time high. Viewership fell in week 14 of 2020, but seems to have recovered a bit in week 15 of 2020 (Saturday, 11 April 2020 to Friday, 17 April 2020, week under review). Towards the mid-end of Week 12 of 2020 was when the Indian COVID-19 lockdown happened (25 March 2020), but events such as the Janta curfew happened at the start of week 12. Hence, week 12 can be considered the first week of the Indian COVID-19 lockdown. Television viewing habits and viewership have changed completely during the lockdown period in the country.
Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) data for week 15 of 2020 reveals that only one of the nine channels that were present in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels Across Genres on All Platforms, on pay platform and free platform in weeks 13, 14 and 15 of 2020 have seen viewership growth in week on week (w-o-w) to week 15 as compared to the peak week. Pubcaster network Doordarshan’s (DD) flagship channel DD National saw viewership grow 21.4 per cent in week 14 of 2020 as compared to week 13 and saw it grow further in week 15 by 38.2 per cent vis-à-vis week 14 in BARC’s weekly across genres lists on all platforms. The most widely available terrestrial channel in the country saw viewership grow 68 per cent in week 15 as compared to week 13 in BARC’s weekly across genres lists on all platforms. The rerun of the mythology shows Ramayan and Mahabharat and a number of classics from the 80’s and 90’s of the previous century have helped two channels of DD grow viewership tremendously.
Top 10 channels across genres on all platforms
Nine channels have appeared in BARC’s weekly across genres lists on all platforms during all the three weeks under consideration here. The only exception was the Sun Network’s Tamil movies channel KTV, which exited in BARC’s weekly across genres lists on all platforms in week 14 of 2020, to be replaced by Viacom18’s Kids channel Nick.
Sun TV Network’s flagship Tamil channel Sun TV saw viewership decline in week 14 by19.4 per cent as compared to week 13 of 2020, but then climb again strongly in week 15 by 48 per cent as compared to week 13.
Two channels, each from DD, Sony Pictures Network India (SPN) and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) and one channel each from Enterr 10 Television, Star India, Sun Tv Network and Viacom18, were present in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Channels Across Genres on All Platforms in week 25 of 2020. Five of the channels were Hindi GECs; there were two Hindi movie channels and there was one channel each from the kids, Tamil and Telugu genres present in the list in week 15 of 2020.
Please refer to the chart below
Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres
In BARC’s weekly lists of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres for weeks 13, 14 and 15 of 2020, DD National was the only channel that saw w-o-w growth in weeks 14 and 15 as compared to week 13 of 2020.
Nine of the channels in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres have been the same in weeks 13, 14 and 15 of 2020 with a shuffling of ranks. The only change was when KTV exited the list in week 15 of 2020 to be replaced by its network’s sibling Telugu GEC Gemini TV.
Three channels each from the Hindi movies and Telugu genres, two channels from the Hindi GEC genre and one channel each from the kids and Tamil
genre made up BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres in week 15 of 2020. Two channels each from SPN, Star, Sun and Viacom 18 (one from Viacom18 and one from Eenadu TV group in which Viacom18’s majority owner Network18 has a stake) and one channel each from DD and Zee were present in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Pay Channels Across Genres.
Please refer to the charts below:
Top 10 Free-to-Air Channels Across Genres
In the case of BARC’s weekly lists of Top 10 Free-to-Air Channels Across Genres, it was again DD National that maintained its w-o-w growth in weeks 14 and 15 as compared to week 13 of 2020. Further, Zeel’sBhohpuri cinema channel Zee Biskope also showed growth during week 15 vis-à-vis week 13, but it had seen a viewership drop in week 14 as compared to week 13 of 2020.
Four Hindi GECs’, three channels from the Hindi Movies, two channels from the Bhojpuri genre and one channel from the Youth genre comprised BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free-to-Air Channels Across Genres in week 15 of 2020. There were three channels each from Enterr 10 Television and Zeel and two channels each from B4U and DD networks in BARC’s weekly list of Top 10 Free-to-Air Channels Across Genres during the week under review.
Here also, nine of the channels were present during the three weeks under consideration in this paper, but again with some shuffling of ranks. The India Today group’s Hindi News channel AajTakexited the list in week 14 to be replaced by DD’s Hindi GEC DD Bharati.
Please refer to the charts below:
