News benefited at the expense of other TV genres, which may have registered a 15% decline in advertising as compared to 6-7% for news during the lockdown, said Karan Taurani, research analyst at Elara Capital Ltd
The lockdown imposed to contain the spread of covid augured well for television news, which grew its share from 7.6% to 14.6% because of people’s hunger for news on covid, the prime minister’s multiple addresses to the nation and the aggressive coverage of actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, resulting in a spike in viewership. Children, who watched more television as schools were shut, added to the growth in 2020.
However, both genres settled at lower growth rates for the full year. Overall television viewership surged 18% during the peak of the lockdown, finishing though at 9% higher in 2020 than 2019, the Broadcast Audience Research Council (Barc) said in its annual report.
As restrictions were eased, the share of news dropped to 9.9% during the unlock phase and 7.3% by the end of the year. According to a TAM AdEX report, average ad volumes per day on the news genre grew 5% in 2020 compared to 2019, with the highest resurgence seen during the festive quarter, when it commanded up to 11.1% of monthly share of ad volumes.
“Advertisers realized the importance of the news genre with the outbreak of coronavirus and other economic disruptions, state elections and political developments that made people curious about what was happening around them because of prevailing uncertainties," said Avinash Pandey, chief executive officer, ABP Network.
Viewers turn to TV channels to verify what they hear or read on social media and for in-depth coverage and not breaking news as was the case earlier, he added.
News benefited at the expense of other TV genres, which may have registered a 15% decline in advertising as compared to 6-7% for news during the lockdown, said Karan Taurani, research analyst at Elara Capital Ltd.
“While other genres will bounce back, news should maintain its flattish growth thanks to uncertainties around vaccination and the virus spr-ead continuing, which is good enough for them," he said.
With people locked up at home and spreading their TV viewing through the day, non-prime time hours emerged as the new prime-time for the small screen through 2020, Barc said. Viewing for non-prime time for general entertainment channels (GEC) grew by 16% over the year, of news by 26%, and children by 31%, as compared to 2019. Share of non-prime time viewing in total TV viewership rose from 51% in 2019 to 53% in 2020.
Further, thanks to the free time people had, weekly viewing minutes for GECs grew by 9% in 2020 compared to the previous year, and that of movies, news and the kids genre by 10%, 27% and 27% respectively. Music and youth channels and sports saw viewership fall by 11% and 35% respectively.
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