The work-from-home directive after the outbreak of COVID-19 has led to a jump in television viewership across the country.
As per the latest report by BARC-Nielsen India, the consumption of television content has increased by over 72 billion viewing minutes, leading to an 8% jump in the period from March 14-20 compared to the last three weeks of January. In urban India, the viewership in week 11 of 2020, around the time when companies announced work-from-home, was the second-highest since 2015. Viewership has risen by 8% among men, 9% among women and 20% among children.
The average time spent per viewer per day now stands at 3 hours 51 minutes, showing a 2% rise, as per BARC-Nielsen India data.
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The growth has been driven by a 20% increase in daytime viewership at an all-India level. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s March 24 address on ‘complete lockdown’ was the most viewed event, with the number of viewers surpassing the IPL Finals (133 million), at 197 million. At ZEE, the non-fiction programming, award show based content and viewership of movies has increased. Time spent by children has gone up for (general entertainment category) GECs and movies by 28% and 26% respectively, ZEE executives said. Prathyusha Agarwal, Chief Consumer Officer, ZEE Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. said, “As the nation is coping with the COVID-19 outbreak and spending most of their time indoors, TV has been rendered the most sought-after companion to live through these unprecedented times.”
“We are witnessing a consumption spike with the average time spent on TV increasing sharply. With the mandatory lockdown in place, the entire family consumption of the TV has seen an above average growth especially amongst males and kids,” she said. Even there is a change in the viewing pattern, with children watching more movies and news apart from the regular kids content, she said.