The lockdown necessitated by Covid-19 has impacted media consumption positively across most media vehicles, according to an investor presentation by Music Broadcast Ltd.

During lockdown TV reach touched 5.6 crore (pre-lockdown: 5 crore) followed by radio 5.1 crore (4.8 crore), as per a survey conducted by AZ Research PPL (Bengaluru), across Delhi NCR, Mumbai (including Thane), Pune, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Hyderabad (including Secunderabad).

Social media (such as WhatsApp, Facebook, etc) as a media vehicle is on a very high base and hence has not been impacted much (5.7 crore during lockdown against 5.6 crore pre-lockdown), the survey, which is based on 3,300 interviews across the aforementioned cities, said.

During the Covid lockdown period, television leads on engagement with an average viewer spending 3.30 hours a day viewing (pre-lockdown: 2.48 hours). Radio clearly is at second spot, with listeners spending 2.36 hours per day listening (2.07 hours).

Internet, social media

Engagement of Internet surfing, watching content on the Internet, and social media is moderate but together account for a significant time (3.38 hours during lockdown vs 3.30 hours pre-lockdown).

Though the number of newspaper readers has come down during the lockdown to 2.1 crore (from three crore in the pre-lockdown period), the amount of time spent reading newspapers increased to 48 minutes (from 36 minutes).

Overall, most radio listenership has shifted to in-home listening (86 per cent) during the lockdown against 64 per cent before the lockdown.

“However, interestingly, out-of-home listening is not nil but is significant at 14 per cent. Most of this is coming from people walking outdoors with radio on mobile,” as per the presentation.

Most radio listenership has shifted to mobile in the lockdown days (84 per cent). This was at 68 per cent before the lockdown.