The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has reported an overall growth of 40 percent in television viewership over the pre-coronavirus period, with 1.24 trillion minutes of TV content being consumed in the week 15 (April 11th-17th) period. Nearly half of India is now watching TV daily as compared to 32 percent earlier.
During Week 15 viewership growth has been recorded in both reach and average time spent watching television. Tamil Nadu/Pondicherry has the highest daily Average Time Spent (ATS) of 5 hours 50 minutes while Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal were the states with the lowest ATS.
Viewership of Movies and News channels have significantly grown in the COVID-19 period and now operating at higher levels. However, compared to week 14, in week 15 consumption of both Movies and News channels reduced by 2 percent and 1 percent respectively.
BARC said that the growth in Movie viewership over the past few weeks is coming largely from pay platforms across Urban and Rural markets (82% and 69% respectively). In Hindi Speaking Markets (HSM), News stays strong with over 200% growth in week 15 over the Pre COVID period, the council added.
Hindi GEC channels like Sony Pal which are driven by re-run programs have attained an all-time high viewership after leaving DD Free Dish last year. Because of mythological shows like Ramayan and Mahabharat, the viewership of GEC channels in HSM has also attained all-time high viewership with 8.5 Billion impressions even without broadcast of any new episode.
