Television Viewership continues to decline with a 13% fall in week 18

Television viewership has seen a gradual drop since week 13 and in week 18 also it has continued to decline. Overall TV consumption across India has reduced by 13% to 1.10 trillion viewing minutes compared to the prior week. 

Daily average time spent per viewer dropped by 11% and the number of channels watched by an individual in a week also reduced by 13%. Viewers watching TV all 7 days a week too declined by 9%.

BARC said that the drop in viewership is more in markets with a lower presence of Red Zones. Primetime viewership is 7% lower than what it was in the pre-COVID period mostly because of no fresh original programming.

In week 18 overall Free Commercial Time (FCT) dropped by 9% and there has been a 7% decrease in advertiser count as well. While advertisements volume for general entertainment channels is mostly stable, the movies and news genre witnessed a 7%-8% drop.