Bigg Boss Telugu is the top watched show in the state

Fast-changing viewers’ sentiments towards video consumption are contributing immensely to the evolving online entertainment space. Further as pandemic confined people to stay at homes, it has resulted in a surge for online content. Given this spike, and to understand the changing behaviour patterns among viewers in Southern India, Disney+ Hotstar recently conducted a study in Telangana.

The study reveals some interesting facts. In Telangana, while Hyderabad leads the entertainment consumption chart with 90%, the platform has witnessed 117% rise in the viewership coming from non-metro cities in the state. The report also states that the consumption of reality and drama shows is higher as compared to other genres. 

Bigg Boss Telugu remains the most watched show in Telangana. Interestingly, season 4 viewership in the state surpassed last season’s viewership, recorded 60% increase in consumption. The study shows that the season 4 viewership was consumed by 40% of female viewers in Telangana. 

Additionally, the streaming platform also gave its viewers the unique opportunity to not only watch the show but also use their power to vote 10 times a day exclusively on the platform, thereby becoming the ultimate game-changers to keep their favorite contestants in the house. Disney+Hotstar witnessed increase in the consumer engagement by 2X since the introduction of voting on the platform in 2019 and it has increased this year as well. 

Viewers of the show had to download and install the Disney+Hotstar app on their mobile phones, (Available on Android and iOS) create an account using their email id, phone number or social media account, type ‘Bigg Boss Telugu 4’ in the search bar, click on the vote icon and cast their votes to save their favorite contestant. Users had 10 votes each day, which they could either use for a single contestant or could split it among the other contestants on the list. Through this initiative, viewers got to interact and express their opinions to vote for their favorite contestants. Furthermore, in comparison to last year, Big Boss season 4 received more votes from men vs women.

Commenting on the study, the spokesperson at Disney+Hotstar, said, “It is overwhelming to see the response from the viewers in the South. Along with metros, online entertainment content consumption has rapidly picked up in smaller cities. It is expected to be the next wave of growth for OTT platforms. South remains to be an important market for us, and we will continue to engage with our audiences by enhancing our regional content library and providing access to high-quality content for free.” 

After Hyderabad, Vishakhapatnam was the 2^nd leading city which contributed to the show’s consumption with 20% viewership. It is also evident from the study that the popularity of Bigg Boss Telugu was not restricted to only Telugu states as the notable viewership came from show’s fans residing in Maharashtra, with Mumbai being the highest contributing city. Further, interestingly one out of every two viewer casted his/her vote for their favourite contestant on the platform.

Along with Bigg Boss Telugu season 4, Disney+Hotstar’s high-quality free content library includes daily catch-up TV shows in 8 Indian languages, a vast collection of blockbuster movies, LIVE and on-demand news in 8 languages from the country’s leading news channels and comprehensive sports clips covering major sporting events, such as the IPL, BCCI cricket series, Premier League, ISL and PKL, with all the exciting action from the day available as match highlights, key individual performances and match analysis.