BackHindi entertainment channels see audience churn in covid era
With movie theatres shut and television devoid of original programming for months during the covid-19 lockdown, the fragmentation of audiences between TV and over-the-top video streaming platforms is higher than ever
PremiumNEW DELHI: The overall television viewership in India may have turned out to be 22% higher than pre-covid at last count, but media and entertainment industry experts say the sector, especially the Hindi general entertainment channels, should brace for major churn as viewership habits and patterns could have changed for good and new offerings compete for audiences’ attention.
For one, with movie theatres shut and television devoid of original programming for months during the covid-19 lockdown, the fragmentation of audiences between TV and over-the-top (OTT) video streaming platforms is higher than ever.
According to a report by media consulting firm Ormax, 12.21 million Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) viewers watched original content on streaming for the first time during the lockdown. Ormax founder Shailesh Kapoor said many older shows have lost viewership by 20-30%. In fact, in the initial weeks post resumption of fresh episodes, Kapoor had pointed out in a blog that some shows had notched up only 60% of their pre-covid numbers and that long-running shows like Kundali Bhagya, Kumkum Bhagya and Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai had not got a section of their audience back.
“There is no taking away from the penetration of Internet and smartphones into the country and the fact that the lockdown has led to increased fragmentation (between TV and OTT markets). The truth is we have entered an ‘and’ phase where both platforms co-exist and that is definitely a challenge from a broadcaster perspective though we had anticipated it," said Nina Elavia Jaipuria, head, Hindi and kids TV network at Viacom18 Media Pvt Ltd that owns channels like Colors.
Shekhar Banerjee, chief client officer and West head at Wavemaker India said while many consumer habits will change over the next few months as people begin to step out of home in phases, there is no doubt OTT consumption will settle at higher levels than pre-covid.
Jaipuria admitted consumer habits have been broken over the past few months where they have turned to not just different platforms like streaming but to different TV genres too, such as movies and news which saw massive growth at the expense of GECs. The average time spent on GECs in prime-time slots is lower too, 8% for Hindi, 13% for Marathi, and so on. Overall, non prime-time TV viewership is 44% higher than pre-covid versus 3% for primetime. Prime time in TV is defined as the evening slot of between 8 pm and 10.30 pm.
“Non-prime time is the new primetime," said Prathyusha Agarwal, chief consumer officer, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd adding though that the typical TV viewer unit has changed from just women to family, and hence a lot of medium or light viewers have been added to the overall TV consumption base. The male viewer is equally invested (in TV) throughout prime time which explains the higher engagement on genres such as news.
“Life isn’t the same anymore and viewership been divided across day parts," said Neeraj Vyas, senior executive vice-president and business head, Sony SAB and Sony MAX adding that all viewers have a certain threshold which is met in the afternoon or morning. Further, a lot of Hindi GEC shows started shooting much later than other languages. Standalone viewership of individual shows, Vyas said, “is limping back" adding that “this is a slow burn."
Channel heads insist prime time viewership and advertising are both returning to normal as the Hindi GECs regain their lost market share in total viewership – from a low of 39% at the peak of the lockdown to 52% now. Yet media experts point to new trends.
“The fact that viewership in non primetime and afternoons is higher is reflective in certain advertising that is led by GRPs (gross rating points, a measure of advertising that measures advertising impact) so there is a skew towards these new slots," said K Srinivas Rao, national director, buying at GroupM-owned media agency MediaCom.
Meanwhile, GECs must brace themselves for the big challenge to be thrown up by the Indian Premier League that is scheduled to start this month, one that is likely to eat both into their viewership as well as advertising even though some marquee shows will return.
“The impact of the IPL will be huge, because India has been cricket-starved for seven to eight months. Usually, GECs lose 10-15% viewership during IPL, and we can expect a drop that's a notch higher this year," Ormax’s Kapoor said. “When non-fiction shows like Bigg Boss and KBC are on air, the overall viewership of the Hindi GEC category is up by about 10%. Once IPL is over and reality shows are on air, the latter will find their peak potential."
All figures are from the latest BARC Nielsen report on TV viewership, unless mentioned otherwise.
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