A detailed look at the viewership trends over last 75 weeks has an enigmatic answer- Yes and No!

While the general entertainment channels have managed to hold on their viewership in Prime time, morning day-part is a different story. With over 70 channels beaming at Hindi-English audience, and most of them focussing to wean audience away from general entertainment channels, relative performance of these two broad categories makes an interesting analysis.

To get a comprehensive picture, we looked at the TAM channel share data for three distinct audience groups - male, female and youth (defined below) and considered both primetime and morning daypart.

The first finding is that, in Prime time, the General entertainment channels have managed to protect their cumulative audience shares. In fact, amongst Female audiences, they have managed to grow their share! Look at the Chart 1 below.

Chart 1: Channel Share (%) Trend for Female Audience in Prime Time

TG: Female/ SEC AB/ 25-44 Yrs Markets: Delhi, Mumbai and Calcutta Timeband: 8-11 PM
General Entertainment Channels:
Special Interest Channels:

It is evident from the chart above, that while the average channel share of general entertainment channels in early 2001 was around the 53-57 % mark, the share has moved to over 60% in much of 2002.

General Interest channels have also been able to hold on to the male audience. See chart 2


TG: Males/ SEC AB/ 25-44 Yrs Markets: Delhi, Mumbai and Calcutta Timeband: 8-11 PM
General Entertainment Channels:
Special Interest Channels:

But the trend in the morning daypart is stunning. In the last 75 weeks, in certain markets and audiences, special interest channels have become more popular than general entertainment channels!

Look at Chart 3. Amongst the male audiences, the share of special interest channels has moved up from about 15% to 25%, while the general entertainment channels have lost share from an average of 45% to an average of 25%.

Chart 3: Male Audience has a strong preference for special interest channels in morning daypart

TG: Males/ SEC AB/ 25-44 Yrs Markets: Delhi, Mumbai and Calcutta Timeband: 8-11 PM

What has lead to this dramatic trend? The Data points out two principle reasons. One, expectedly, is news channels. Look at the growth recorded by AajTak and Zee News. The second reason is a strong run recorded by Cartoon Network, even in Male, 25-44 Yrs category. In most weeks, the Cartoon Network share matches that of AajTak.

Chart 4

TG: Males/ SEC AB/ 25-44 Yrs Markets: Delhi, Mumbai and Calcutta Timeband: 8-11 PM

While this is a stellar performance by special interest channels now, would they in future, achieve the same feat in Prime time? Only time will tell.