BARC report uncovers seasonal nature and trends of TV viewing
Audience in south India consume maximum television throughout the year as visible from the high impressions in Total TV viewership
Television consumption varies from season to season. BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council), the only rating body in India, has released its new research on seasonality and TV trends. It answers questions on how the quarter on quarter television viewership shape up, what are its implications, what are the viewership trends across zones and markets, etc.
Through this research, BARC explored the seasonal nature of television viewing by analyzing their robust viewership data over the past two years. This helped to uncover some trends and insights which may be valuable to the stakeholders in anticipating and formulating annual plans.
For the purpose of this analysis, BARC considered a target group of people belonging to the age group of 15+ years. The Kids TG was not considered to maintain consistency in analysis and factor out any effect of the Universe Update (2-4 yrs) on the viewership trends
Seasonal Trends
Looking at the ebbs and flows in the viewership trend line, it is evident that the TV viewing pattern remains consistent quarter on quarter, each year. Q2 (April-June) of the calendar year is traditionally the least performing quarter, as the viewership dips during this period. April-June are the peak summer months, and the onset of the holiday season owing to summer vacations in schools and colleges. Another possible explanation could be the increase in power cuts and load shedding during in the summers.
As the holiday season ends, viewership starts picking up in Q3 (July-September). The quarter witnessed a growth of 5 per cent in overall TV viewership from 2016 to 2017. This is the highest viewership growth across the four quarters, and may be an ideal time to hook viewers returning to television after a short hiatus, by debuting new content and programmes. Q4 (October-December) is the strongest quarter of the year with respect to TV viewership.
However, this quarter witnessed the least growth of 1 per cent in 2017 over the same quarter in 2016. A lot of special, festive programming occurs in this quarter in lieu of Diwali, Christmas, New Year, and hence viewership may be maxed out in this season.
There may be a great opportunity here for broadcasters to hook viewers on long weekends with a cohesive programming strategy spread across 3 – days which would compel the viewers to tune into television to watch the channel/ programme on all days of the long weekend.
Market Trends
All geographic zones- North, South, East and West exhibit similar TV viewing patterns round the year. Audiences in South India consume the maximum television throughout the year, as is visible from the high impressions contributed by the South zone to Total TV viewership across both years.
AP/ Telangana and TN/ Pondicherry have consistently been in the top three markets across all state markets in the country, along with Maharashtra/ Goa. High TV penetration in these states is also an important factor which may have driven high viewership in said markets.
TN/ Pondicherry market saw an increase in TV viewership in the latter half of 2016, on the back of ex-CM Jayalalitha’s health crisis and subsequent political unrest. This increase bumped up the all India viewership as well, indicating that viewership in this market is more likely to fluctuate with severity of events. North and West zones were observed to be at par with respect to TV viewership in 2016. While the viewership has shifted slightly, no significant change is observed in the viewing pattern.
External factors such as the weather or temperature were also considered for impact on TV viewership. To answer this, BARC made a unique attempt by mapping the average daily temperature with daily viewership data across 6 megacities - Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai. It was found that temperature and viewership have an inverse relationship. In winters/ cold weather, people stay indoors and watch TV, but in summers/ warm climate people would prefer stepping out and engaging in alternate activities for entertainment.
The cyclic pattern in television viewing could partly be explained by this environmental factor. As observed earlier, TV viewing is high in the 4th and 1st quarters, which are typically the autumn and winter months, but in the 2nd quarter (summer) the viewership dips and stays low. This has been the pulse of TV watching in India for the last 2 years, and perhaps previously as well.
Genre Trends
Looking at the trends across genres, multiple observations come to light.
GEC: The GEC genre appears to be the biggest genre on television with the highest share of viewership across the timeline. It is a relatively stable genre, with no major fluctuations across the year. Some of the spikes observed can be attributed to the airing of specific events, such as award shows & finale episodes of popular reality shows.
Movies: While looking at the Total TV viewership trend earlier, we had observed weekly growth in viewership on weekends. This growth seems to be fuelled by the Movie genre, which is also in keeping with the programming strategy of airing blockbuster movies and Premiers/ World TV Premiers on weekends. A distinct viewership peak is observed in this genre on 15 August across both years. A note-worthy rise in viewership in the genre is also observed between April-May 2017. This can be attributed specifically to the airing of a popular T20 cricket tournament on a broadcasting channel in the movie genre.
Kids: Since the Kids TG has not been considered in this analysis, one would expect the viewership for Kids channels to be lower. However, it is interesting to see that Kids genre continues to receive substantial viewership in comparison to the remaining genres. While some of these viewers may include the older teens, it is also indicative of co-viewership of the older groups along with the kids, as a large percentage (>90%) of TV households in India are single TV homes. In addition to Movies genre, the Kids genre too exhibits regular viewership spikes due to increased consumption of such channels on a weekend as opposed to a weekday.
Music, Youth & Infotainment: The Music genre has a similar viewership share as that of Kids genre among the 15+ audience. The genre seems to be growing with an upward linear trend. The Youth and Infotainment genres, are relatively smaller in comparison to the rest. While the Youth genre seems to be stable and consistent, the Infotainment genre exhibits a slightly downward trend line.
News genre is a highly event driven and dynamic genre. While it is a small genre, some massive spikes are seen across the timeline. All these spikes can be attributed to some major event or story that was being covered by news channels, as indicated in the graph. Some events lead to a higher spike in viewership due to their nature and impact
Sports is also a very dynamic and property driven genre. Maximum fluctuations can be seen in this genre across the timeline, based on the schedule of major sporting events. During the telecast of big ticket properties such as the T20 World Cup and the ICC Champions Trophy, the average viewership of the sports genre has surpassed the highest average viewership for GEC genre on a given day during the two-year period. This is evident from the viewership spikes during all cricket tournaments, especially when Team India is playing.
Daypart Trends
Looking at the historic day-part trends split by 3-hour time bands, it appears that the early Prime Time band (1800-2100 hrs) is the only time band which reflects seasonality in TV viewing, while all other time bands appear immune to it. The late prime time band (2100-2400 hrs) also exhibits seasonality. There is a visible drop in the viewership for this time band during Q2 (April-June) in both years, however the increase in the subsequent quarter is not as high as that of the previous time band.
In fact, it is interesting to note that the early and late Prime Time bands exhibit opposite growth trends, specifically in Q1 (Jan-Mar) and Q4 (Oct-Dec) each year. Since these are also the strongest quarters with respect to TV viewership, there may be a latent opportunity here to grow viewership by airing compelling content in the late prime time (2100-2400 hrs) time band.
Five unique dayparts exist in the average TV viewing day. The late morning (0900- 1200) and early afternoon (1200-1500) time bands can be thought of as a single time band, due to high similarity in their viewership patterns.
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The current ratings system lacks trust: Rabindra Narayan, PTC Network
During the recently held e4m media debate, Rabindra Narayan, MD and President, PTC Network, spoke for the need for multiple TV rating providers
The current system of ratings by BARC lacks trust and credibility, said Rabindra Narayan, MD and President, PTC Network, at the e4m debate on Wednesday while asserting the need for multiple rating agencies in the broadcast ecosystem.
The e4m media debate on ‘India needs multiple TV rating providers because competition drives excellence’, held in New Delhi, was chaired by Anurag Batra, Founder of e4m and Editor-in-Chief of Businessworld Media Group.
During the debate, Narayan, who was speaking for the motion with other panellists, questioned the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) ratings, particularly for news channels saying that politicians spending money to advertise on news channels and not GECs, is proof enough that the genre is doing much better than the ratings given by BARC.
“The fact that we are having this discussion, implies that the current system lacks trust. It lacks credibility. BARC analyses only linear TV that is beamed and received through satellite and cable. TV viewing today is not just linear TV, it also has several forms like connected TV and Fast TV coming on the same screen but BARC is not measuring it,” he said.
Narayan further said that it was time to innovate and look at content rating rather than just television rating points.
“As per BARC, news genre reach is 6-7% in the entire country, if that is true then why are politicians eager to spend on advertising on news channels? Why not on GECs? Why all the money spent by advertisers to reach maximum consumers, based on this Bible (BARC) which is junk? Why are we fighting for TV rating points and not content rating points when the technology and the system is changing?
“The current system of ratings (by BARC) is flawed, biased as it is controlled by a handful of people. Broadcaster lobby is controlled by four business houses so it will always remain in their favour. The data shows it,” he argued.
In his concluding remarks, Narayan said that BARC needs to improve and for that it does not even need to invest in more meters than it already has because cable operators and DTH are now digitised.
“They don’t even need to invest more. They don’t even need more meters than the ones installed already because every cable operator is now digitised and has two-way addressable communication available,” he said.
Sharee4m Media Debate 2024: Call for multiple ratings agencies to break monopoly
Industry players discussed the authority of the current ratings system and whether having multiple agencies will cause increased complexities, discrepancies and expenses
Indian TV news media and advertisers today rely solely on the data released by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India to strategise media plans and budgets.
Hence, many suggest having multiple rating systems which will allow for a more nuanced understanding of viewership patterns across different demographics.
Rabindra Narayan, MD and President, PTC Network; Mona Jain, Chief Revenue Officer, Zee Media, and Karthik Sharma, Group CEO, Omnicom Media Group believe a multi-ratings system will drive excellence amidst competition.
On the other hand, multiple ratings systems may also present challenges such as increased complexity, potential discrepancies in ratings, and higher costs for broadcasters as well as advertisers.
The current system of ratings is “flawed” and “biased, as it is controlled by a handful of people,” was the view of the industry veterans who advocated the need for multiple rating agencies instead of just one, which is currently the BARC, saying “monopoly makes people complacent”
During the debate, things got intense when some of the panellists, who were speaking for the motion, questioned BARC ratings, particularly for news channels saying that politicians spending money to advertise on news channels and not GECs, is proof enough that the genre is doing much better than the ratings given by BARC.
To present a viewpoint against the motion, Chintamani Rao, Strategic Marketing and Media Consultant, Rajiv Dubey, Head of Media, Dabur India, and Varun Kohli, Director and CEO, Bharat Express News Network joined the debate at e4m’s Media Debate in New Delhi. Dr. Annurag Batra, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, BW Businessworld Media Group and Founder, e4m Group, chaired the debate.
Jain opened the discussion and said, “There is a dependency of an advertiser to take up a particular media plan via the agency. On the other hand, the broadcaster is absolutely at the mercy of the measurement system which decides where you rank. The issue is nobody looks at what the reality on ground is. Hence, I have started telling agencies and advertisers to also look at my digital platform’s ranking but the rating in BARC still holds significant value for them.”
She further suggested we should have an authenticated, validated, acknowledged currency which is recognised and valued by advertisers and agencies as well.
Presenting an opposing stand, Rao explained, “There many doubts about BARC and its functioning but I continue to maintain that audience measurement is no business of the government.”
At the end of the day, it is not about the number of vendors but how they are managed. Two poorly managed are not better than one, he added. The key issue is that BARC is dominated by one of its constituents and that is the one which is being measured.
“If advertiser’s money fuels the entire media ecosystem, why did they accept a structure with Indian Broadcasting & Digital Foundation (IBDF) at 60 percent?” questioned Rao.
Sharma, who joined virtually, expressed that if we forget the industry for a while, why do we need the NSE and BSE? Why do we need CIBIL and Experian? The short answer is innovation and competition. If there would be no competition, we would have one brand in every category we operate in.
“Even in a market like the USA, which has the largest AdEx market, there are two systems. Even the UK, Australia, Malaysia, Philippines and so many more countries have two audience measurement systems. In a largely populated country like India two systems will help in better sampling and segmentation,” he added.
Dubey took the stage right after and spoke about how one, two or multiple rating systems don’t matter to an advertiser. At the end of the day, it should help the brand sell. His objective is to reach out to the consumers in the cheapest possible manner.
“The idea of BARC was to have a robust system which could measure everyone well. Have we been able to do that? Probably yes or probably no,” he said.
With changing times, the audience needs have changed and NCCS was a system that measured the class of people based on the ownership of consumer durables. But now, the newly proposed ISEC fulfils those gaps.
Consumers have also started consuming content on different platforms, more towards digital and OTT. Dubey believes, “We haven’t been able to measure that audience correctly yet. Hence, the Indian TV industry needs one system and that system needs to be strengthened in such a way that it measures TV and digital audience equally.”
On having multiple audience measurement systems, the Dabur spokesperson said, “To solve the problem, you should not create another problem, but fix the problem instead.”
Narayan of PTC, who stood for the motion, expressed, “The fact that we are standing here and debating the issue, implies the current system lacks trust and credibility. We are also setting the premise that by TV ratings, we only mean linear TV ratings because that is what BARC does.”
He further shared that BARC does measurement via image mapping and hence, when any channel puts its watermark on any platform, it should become measurable for BARC since they already have the technology for it.
“Then why don't they? Because they need more focus on analysis, not more investment. The trouble is the ecosystem is not allowing the expansion of those ratings,” he added.
Today, BARC says 9 out of 100 people watch PTC, which is impossible and advertisers bargain for the ad rates accordingly. The channel today continues to invest in good shows but advertiser interest is low due to BARC’s data. If there is any truth to this, why wouldn’t players like PTC fight for multiple ratings systems?
“When Chandrayaan was launched, everyone in the world and India was watching it but if you see the BARC data, that particular week the ratings of the news genre went down. Is that even possible? News genre is much higher than what BARC is projecting,” Jain added.
Even on a day like the launch of Chandrayan, there was no spike on BARC data. Jain and Narayan both believe the current system is flawed and biased because it is controlled by a handful of people.
“The fact that we are having this discussion, implies that the current system lacks trust. It lacks credibility. BARC analyses only linear tv that is beamed and received through satellite and cable. TV viewing today is not just linear tv, it also has several forms like connected TV and Fast TV coming on the same screen but BARC is not measuring it,” Narayan said.
Narayan further said that it was time to innovate and look at content rating rather than just television rating points.
“As per BARC, news genre reach is 6-7% in the entire country, if that is true then why are politicians eager to spend on advertising on news channels? Why not on GECs? Why all the money spent by advertisers to reach maximum consumers, based on this Bible (BARC) which is junk? Why are we fighting for TV rating points and not content rating points when the technology and the system is changing?
“The current system of ratings (by BARC) is flawed, biased as it is controlled by a handful of people. Broadcaster lobby is controlled by four business houses so it will always remain in their favour. The data shows it,” he argued.
Kohli of Bharat Express, said, “BARC came into existence because publishers wanted a different rating system and then a mechanism was conceived. Now, questioning that system just because ratings aren’t in the right proportion or it doesn’t map digital audiences and to further ask for a separate body, I dont think is the right way.”
The industry needs to come together and exercise jurisdiction with BARC to tell them what more is needed and where they can get better, he suggested as a solution.
Rao also suggested it is better to have an aggregator rather than multiple players. In that case, the aggregator can also become the provider of data. BARC can always collect multiple data from various sources and present it.
The mapping of the audience correctly will also solve the problem in a way, which will be done with ISEC majorly. Having a unified measurement is also another solution, said Dubey.
According to Sharma, “Having more than one player will definitely fuel innovation and have a little competition, which is good. Different rating systems could also focus on different target segments, cohorts and more.”
“We need to focus on screens and not linear tv or digital. It is a screen-based world and people are just consuming content which is meaningful for them. So different types of consumptions require different types of measurements. My argument is innovation is critical as it is high time.
“Consumer is looking at the screen through mobile or TV sets. How are we measuring it? Some competition is healthy. It is important to have a mindset of how one system can help the other. The current system is not wrong but the newer system can enhance what we have,” he said.
Narayan concluded, “Television viewing and consumption has changed. Either BARC grows up to the changing times or others should come in and fill the gap. The market forces will decide who will remain and who will go, whose data is authentic and whose is not. There is no need for a debate here.”