2017- A Great Year for News channels: BARC Think Study

News genre contributes 8% to total TV Viewership, making it the 3rd biggest genre on television in terms of viewership. Taking a bird’s eye view on the news landscape in India, BARC’ latest edition of THINK newsletter titled ‘Breaking the News Story’ presents sharp insights into the news genre which has witnessed a 15% increase in the number of channels, from 142 channels in 2016 to 163 channels in 2017.

The study further states that There are 93 regional news channels spread across multiple regional languages. This number has witnessed an 8% increase as compared to the same period in 2016. The large consumption of Hindi language news can be attributed to the large number of Hindi speaking markets in the country, with 58 news channels catering to them presently, versus 47 channels in 2016.

English news is very niche in India, and therefore accounts for only 1% share of News viewership at an All India level. However, English news has witnessed the maximum growth in the number of channels compared to 2016. It has grown by 33% with 12 active channels currently.

Looking at the viewership share by State Markets, the study saw varied preferences for News consumption, as compared to Total TV viewership. Across zones, the highest share of News viewership comes from South India, followed by the North, while the East contributes the least to News genre viewership.

Some important facts that the latest edition of BARC’s THINK Newsletter highlights are:

As compared to Total TV viewership, News Genre audience is skewed towards Males, age group of 22+ years and NCCS A & B.

News is a dynamic and event driven genre. Politically significant, scheduled events, such as State election results have consistently led to spikes in news viewership. Some unforeseen events also lead to massive spikes in news viewership, due to high intensity and impact. For example- Demonetization, demise of Jayalalitha, Surgical Strike Operation.

The immediate effect of a big news story can be gauged by the corresponding rise in viewership. But, while more number of people tune in, the viewing trend by daypart remains similar to the general trend. i.e. Viewership peaks once in the morning and once in the night. A slight increase is also observed in the afternoon.

It appears that in the case of unscheduled events, viewers prefer quick takeaways and therefore consume short formats such as news bulletins, but in case of scheduled news events, viewers may also be interested in more detailed formats viz. Interviews/ studio discussions etc.

The breaking of a big news story impacts the genre composition on Television, as viewers start moving to news channels for updates.

In case of demonetization, News genre gained 10% share of eyeballs and became the second most viewed genre on the day following the announcement.

News events also have varied impact on advertising. In some markets, the programming share on news channels increased on election result day, to keep viewers hooked. However, in one market, an increase in break duration was also observed. This may be a strategy of increasing ad inventory for advertisers to reach the high number of audiences that tune in.

 In case of an economic event such as demonetization, Total ad FCT on news channels went down by 13%. However, some categories such as ATM, Anywhere Banking Services, and Online Shopping benefitted from the situation and increased their ad insertions to promote their services.

 Link: http://www.barcindia.co.in/resources/Breaking%20the%20News%20Story.pdf

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