TV Viewership in India Experiences a Fall in Percentage With Unlock 2.0

Resumption of work and day to day activities have significantly reduced the TV viewership and the usage of smartphones which had gained its peak during the nationwide lockdown. As the economy starts functioning again people are left with less time to spend on televisions and smartphones.

As per the data released, TV viewership has come down to  15%,  which is higher than what it used to be in the pre-COVID days. This can be said to be a sharp dip from the 43% growth which was noticed when the lockdown was at its peak. The data from South India showed a more declined rate with 11%, but the scenario in Hindi Speaking Belt is slightly better with 17% viewership. The numbers say that the average time spent is only 6% higher when compared to the pre-COVID times and the number of channels per viewer watched per week has come down to 19 from 23. 

BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council) and data measurement firm Nielsen, in its 10th report, brought out these findings on TV viewership and smartphone usage. While conducting the study, the data of the month of January (pre-COVID period) was compared with the data of mid-June.

The numbers reflect that a decline has also been noticed on the number of individuals watching television, all seven days of the week, reducing from 363 million viewers to 301 million.

Jehil Thakkar, partner at Deloitte India said. “TV viewership had spiked initially, it may have trended down now but it is still higher than pre-COVID and people will continue to spend on entertainment in recessionary times,” 

The report further continues stating news channels that were mostly preferred by the viewers have also faced the burn of unlocking with the number of viewership coming to 11% from 21%. In the movie and entertainment section, the trend has been similar with numbers declining from 29% to 24%. In the category of GECs (general entertainment channels), they still hold a good share of the cake with 48% of viewership. The most remarkable aspect of the sector is that GECs (general entertainment channels), is still able to sustain in the market without any original content, and they have just resumed shooting and coming up with new content. The COVID times saw Hindi and Telugu channels duplicating 61% and 69% of their pre-COVID contents respectively. 

On the other hand, mythological shows have gained a good viewership during the lockdown but have now significantly reduced from 119 billion viewing minutes to 46 billion.

The volume for Advertisement on television has also come down for the first half of 2020 which is 13% lower year-on-year,  and on account of the disease and the advertiser count came down by 10%.

Coming to the Smartphone usage, the data is a bit stable now with the average daily time spent is 7% higher than what it used to be in the pre-COVID days, as compared to 6% which was during the starting phase of the lockdown, and 16% when the lockdown was at its peak. Data consumption per user per day is 12% higher in comparison to 8% in the beginning and 21% at peak of the lockdown. The Social networking sites and gaming platforms continue to go higher as compared to the pre-COVID days but have also recorded a loss since April. Video streaming apps have performed relatively well and have managed to hold on to their consumers. At the peak of the lockdown, customers spent an average of 4 hours 8 minutes per week, browsing and watching different content which has now reduced to 3 hours 42 minutes.

As a result of the face-off that took place in the Galwan Valley, a ban on 59 Chinese Apps from the Government of India served as the final blow and these platforms saw a steady decline in the number of users and the time spent. The statistics show a sharp rate of decline which came down to 11% from 18% among the age group of  15-24 years.