MUMBAI: As India moves back to normalcy, the share of general entertainment channel (GEC) viewership has started showing signs of recovery. The data provided by TV audience measurement body, Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) reveals that in the week 30-33, the total number of Hindi GEC viewers who watches news is 49 per cent, whereas 77 per cent of them watch movies. Movies have definitely impacted GEC viewership, especially in Bangla, Marathi, Kannada and Malayalam.

KOLKATA: Kids in India have been cooped in their homes all day due to the restrictions put in place on account of the pandemic. Apparently, they have been watching a lot of Disney Channel India as it has seen a viewership surge of 40 per cent. In a bid to give the kids something new to nibble on, it is all set to launch its most anticipated property Imagine That on 6 September.

“We want Imagine That to inspire kids to express themselves while upcycling products through do it yourself (DIY). We believe recycling or repurposing through DIY can help you create a product in a simplistic way. With partners like Byju’s, Cello ColourUp, and Savlon, I think this property will stay in kids’ and audiences’ minds for a long time,” said Disney Star India infotainment & kids head Anuradha Aggarwal in a press briefing.

Hindi news channel News Nation has started a show Vijayi Bhava, which discusses the use of technology in the weapons of war.

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The show, which launched a month ago, describes the weapons of 5th Generation based on modern technology. It shows how in this ever-changing world, the Indian Army is keeping pace with the prominence on the 5th Generation weapons.

The show describes how modern technology is being adopted in all the three defence services, whether it is modern weapons, tanks, submarines, fighter planes, robotics or artificial intelligence.

Vijayi Bhava showcases the reports related to India's defence readiness and discusses the current and future challenges.

Hindi news channel TV9 Bharatvarsh will be the principal partner of Rajasthan Royals for this edition of the Indian Premier League to be held in UAE from September 19 to November 10. The Royals will wear TV9’s logo on the front of the team jersey in IPL’s 13th edition.

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TV9 Bharatvarsh replaces Expo 2020 Dubai on Rajasthan Royals’ jersey after the mega-event was postponed to 2021 owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Royals look forward to using their shared digital platforms to deliver incredible content to the TV9 audience over the coming season.

Expressing his pleasure at adding another strong brand to the Royals partner family, Jake Lush McCrum, COO, Rajasthan Royals, said, “We’re happy to have TV9 on board with us at Rajasthan Royals this season. It’s one of the most well-renowned networks across India and presents a fantastic opportunity for us to express the story and the culture of Rajasthan Royals to a wider audience.”

Disney India has seen an increase of more than 40% in its viewership as compared to the industry average of 25% in the past few months amid the slowdown, says Anuradha Aggarwal, Head, Infotainment, English and Kids, Star India.

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“Disney has had an exciting time in the past few months. While the kids' genre viewership grew about 25%, we grew viewership by over 40%. Making the Disney network, one of the most preferred networks for kids across India, especially in the last few weeks,” she said.

Discussing their content strategy and how Covid impacted the channel, she said, “We have a fabulous line-up of new shows, about 100 hours of content we launched in the past few months.”

She said along with a good distribution strategy, the definition of prime time changed due to the pandemic, and that increased viewership and the time spent on the channel.

The lockdown led to an unprecedented growth in viewership for news channels. It also did see a decreased ad spends, but now as the country is slowly limping back to normalcy and advertisers are coming back. The festive season has also given the advertisers a chance to reconnect with the consumers.

Mona Jain, Chief Revenue Officer, ABP Network speaks to us about the plans the Network has for the coming festive season and the way forward for the Regional channels and the digital arm of the Network.

Covid 19 and lockdown has seen an unprecedented growth in the News genre, what has been ABP’s growth trajectory during this crisis?

As television consumption reached a historic juncture in the COVID era, the news-genre ruled the roost. In fact, our network registered record-breaking viewership during the first few weeks of lockdown, with ABP News reaching 31 Crore Indians in 4 weeks (Source: BARC, TG-NCCS 2+, Mkt – All India, Cuml Reach in Cr, Wk 12-15’20).

News viewership has taken a share of GEC consumption in the last four weeks during primetime across languages, data released by BARC India and Nielsen Media has revealed.

The eleventh edition of the report on ‘Crisis Consumption on TV and Smartphones’ (week 30 to 33) also shows that viewership for movies has also impacted GEC consumption, especially for Bangla, Marathi, Kannada and Malayalam channels.

The kids genre witnessed an increase in TV viewership in the last few months due to lockdown and summer vacation. As per the BARC India data, the category's viewership grew to 9% as compared to 7% in pre-COVID times. As per the recent report of BARC India- Nielsen, Kids genre viewership, after peaking to 9% share, has stabilized to pre-COVID levels.

Disney Channel on Thursday announced the launch of its new show- Imagine That. The show is a Disney Channel DIY property that aims to inspire kids and families with upcycling as a theme. Starting frrom September 6 at 9.30 am, Imagine That, which will be aired every Sunday, aims to encourage kids and families to imagine, create, explore and have fun with DIY.

 

Speaking about the show and the channel's viewership, Anuradha Aggarwal, Head - Infotainment and Kids, Star & Disney India, shared, “Disney Network has had a very exciting time in the recent few months. While the kids genre has upped viewership by 25%, we have grown viewership by over 40%, making Disney Network one of the most preferred destinations for kids across India, especially in the last few weeks. We have a great lineup of new shows, about 100 hours of which we have launched in the last few months, including shows like Bapu on Disney Channel in May and Guddu on Disney and Hungama TV also in May. We have launched Gadget Guru Ganesha on Disney Channel in August and now we are launching our exciting show Imagine That.”

Recovering from a Rs. 14,000 crore dip in AdEx is not going to be easy for the market. But the upcoming IPL, Diwali and resumption of fresh content on TV bring hope to the media industry.

Between March and August this year, TV advertising suffered more in terms of value and “ticket sizes” than on the ad volumes front, as Prathyusha Agarwal, chief consumer officer, Zee Entertainment Enterprises, pointed out at the start of a panel discussion I moderated earlier this week.

I’ve captured the highlights of the hour-long session in this article. To watch the full discussion click here.

Everyone in the television business -across programming, production and sales- has started moving towards the road to recovery. In such an environment, can the TV commercial catalyse spending and nudge viewers back into the consumption cycle?

Television ad spends dropped across genres during the lockdown and revenues of many channels were hit, including the FTA segment. Things, however, have changed for FTA channel Dangal TV and their revenues are back to pre-Covid times, according to Deep Drona, COO, Enterr10. He said while they too were affected during April and May, the demand for products from rural areas led them to the road of recovery since June.

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“Fortunately for us, all the demands of products have started to come from rural markets and tier two towns rather than metro cities. Because Dangal has been a leader in that space, we were able to go back to pre-Covid revenue levels by June,” he said.