Ramayan and Mahabharat attracts more advertisers; sees a 14X and 12X increase in advertiser count respectively

• As TV viewership grows by 40% on the back of return of mythological shows, advertisers jump on the trend and buy ad spots for Ramayan and Mahabharat.
• Classics gave a 43% push to overall Hindi GEC’s performance.

As the mythological shows continue to drive TV veiwerhsip’s growth, BARC India and Nielsen’s latest report reveals that advertisers are also jumping on the bandwagon. Ramayan and Mahabharat attracted more advertisers in the week starting from March 28 to 16 April.

Ramayan continues to be advertisers’ favourite as it sees a 14X increase, followed by Mahabharat that saw a 12X increase in week 15.

The report further revealed that the return of mythological shows have become the main source of entertainment among Hindi GEC’s. It contributed 43% to overall Hindi’s GEC viewership growth, garnered 109 million viewing minutes and was watched by 353 viewers.

Week 15 recorded a 40% growth over the pre-COVID period, standing at 1.24 trillion minutes. Individuals watching TV for all 7 days in the week increased by 48%.

Some of the Key Highlights of TV and Smartphone consumption during the fifth week of Lockdown are as follows: -

Considerations:

1. 'CORONA Virus' continues to be most searched among Top 100 Google searches.
   
2. 1 in 5 smartphone consumers use the Aarogya Setu app now - an 80% + increase v/s the launch week.
   
3. TV consumption continues to show a growth of 40% over pre-COVID period now at 1.24 Trillion minutes - the increase led by both Reach and Average Time Spent.
   
4. The new normal of 3 hrs, 40 minutes+ a day on Smartphone continues - 10% increase over pre Covid times.
   
5. TV Viewership Growth led by News and Movies - the Movies growth coming more from the PAY platform.
   
6. News franchise on Smartphone continued to be nearly 50% of all smartphone audience, Views grow by 40%.
   
7. Hindi GEC in HSM at an all-time high with 8.5 BN impressions with Mythological shows leading the way. HSM Urban is all time high for 3rd week in row.
   
8. Strong double-digit growth seen across various segments of OTTs (movies, originals, etc.) while Audio streaming apps show a decline possibly on account of commuting going down.
   
9. FCT on TV recovers a bit after a huge fall last week - most advertisers using the COVID19 theme; Essentials category sees a growth across genres; while on Digital Video Advertising spends drop across most categories.