The Great Exodus: As per data, premium audiences moving away from HDTV to CTVs

The ongoing TATA IPL has witnessed a significant shift in consumer behaviour, with Connected TVs (CTV) eating into HD TV viewership in a big way. Data from BARC shows that CTV viewership for TATA IPL accounts for 44.4 million nearly double of HD TV Viewership of 23.9 million. As the popularity and significance of digital services continue to grow among the masses, premium cosmopolitan audiences particularly are opting to watch live sports via CTVs. This trend highlights the growing consumer affinity for consuming live sports via digital platforms. As things stand, the contribution of English-speaking audiences takes a bigger share of the CTV pie.

Here's a closer look and break-down of some of the key data

IPL HD viewership stood at a meagre 23.9 Mn viewers vs 44.4 Mn on JioCinema’s Connected TVs.

The HDTV numbers come apart further when scrutinized, as urban viewers account for about only 12.4 Mn of the 23.9 HDTV viewership, with the rest coming in from rural India. This evidences the vast divide between HDTV and CTV viewership.

 The decline is not limited only to this season of TATA IPL, though. When viewed on a five-year timeline, statistics show that this season’s urban viewership contribution to HDTV is the lowest it has been since the past five seasons.

(Source: BARC)

An additional point which brings alive the HDTV decline reality is the language contribution pie. TATA IPL viewers on HD channels on TV are heavily skewed towards Hindi feed, with only 17% contribution coming from the English feed.

(Source: BARC)

On the other hand, CTV viewers on TATA IPL on JioCinema show way higher affinity towards English feed, where 48 % have watched the high-octane tournament in English- a stark difference when compared to HDTV for the same parameters.

Separating the Fantasies from Facts

Star has claimed a higher number on HD reach of above 43 Mn, which is not a fair representation of the premium HD tv audiences. When broken down under a scanner, 19.8 Mn of the claimed 43 Mn is accounted for by OOH HD TVs. These include tv sets at establishments like malls, restaurants, bars, etc. which inflate the minuscule real figures.

(Source: BARC)

Take the dilution of 19.8 Mn away, and one is left with just 23.9 Mn, which is the more accurate residential viewership of HDTV.

 Why does this matter? Advertisers typically pay higher CPRP for HD Households to access premium customers in their houses to get attention for their ads. The OOH TV HD screens do not have audio on. Additionally, the profile of people on OOH is not necessarily premium.

As a result, advertisers/agencies paying for HD Pay TV households, end up truly reaching merely 23.9 Mn.

Where viewers go, advertisers follow !

Previous season no of advertisers on IPL TV HD was 62 which has come down to 28 this season (source barc)

Most advertisers seeking premium audiences on IPL are moving away to Connected TV .This is reflected in 3x more advertisers on CTV than on HD Channels on Linear TV.

This publication  spoke to few clients/agencies  who have deployed  campaigns on connected tv this IPL season  and here’s what they had to say

Raymond - Himanshu Khanna, CMO - Raymond Lifestyle
With the increasing adoption of CTV, it provides an opportunity for brands, especially premium brands to reach out to this segment of consumers who in all probability are the cord cutters or shavers. And hence, they may not be reached through linear TV. While IPL is mass and viewed across various platforms, IPL on JioCinema Connected TV enables brands connect to these upscale audiences

Madison - Vishal Chinchankar, CEO - Madison Digital & Madison Alpha

Premium audiences aren’t easy to target as there are limited options available to target this TG. CTV becomes one of the important mediums and IPL helps aggregate the premium audiences at scale. Most of the urban cosmopolitan audiences have shifted to smart tv and with 5G, broadband offering supported by compelling OTT content, hence it is important for us to be where these premium audience are consuming content.

The spot-based approach on CTV presented by JioCinema for this IPL Season is working well, as we can aggregate premium audiences, this is an efficient and effective way to reach premium audiences at scale. Till date it has been an extremely satisfactory experience, with good jump in concurrency.

Prachar – Rakesh Jain, Managing Director

LIVE sports are the only way of showing the premium audience ads. Most of the CTV audience have taken the highest level of subscription on all OTT platforms where showcasing ads are not possible, hence reaching them becomes difficult. But with JioCinema on CTV, that has changed. Clients have got great recall with ads on CTV & JioCinema changed the market when they started offering clients spots on CTV rather than impressions. This gave all clients a lot of confidence on advertising on this platform. JioCinema also was very transparent in their approach and were sure of the numbers this would achieve.

They have already over delivered on the commitment they made on numbers on CTV. We can see a lot of SEC A+ Premium homes now adopting CTV for viewing live sports.

Other Factors

Another reason for this is innovative features being offered by JioCinema, the official digital steaming partner for TATA IPL. Innovations include multi-cam angles, the popular Hype feature, 12 language commentary, and 17 unique feeds. Put together, these factors have heralded a paradigm shift among affluent audiences from HDTV to CTV, which accounts for the slump in the former’s viewership this TATA IPL season.

 

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