Hindi GECs witness 6.5 per cent fall in viewership in 2011: TAM

Courtesy the growing viewership fragmentation across the Indian television space, TAM's latest annual study reports that the Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) genre has witnessed 6.5 per cent fall in viewership in 2011 over the previous year.

Titled 'Impatient Generation', the study notes that the viewership of Hindi GECs saw a major upswing in 2010, and then returned to 2009 levels in 2011. The genre's relative share stood at 38 per cent during the year (38 per cent share in 2009), a fall from the 41 per cent share that it had grabbed in 2010.

Commenting on the cause of rising consumer fragmentation, L V Krishnan, CEO, TAM India, says, "This new phenomenon has emerged because of the rise of the assertive, impatient and highly articulate generation of today in most Indian families, thanks to newer media and broadcast technologies, increasing diversities of content, and of course, advancement of new age media that are able to cater to the differing tastes and preferences simultaneously."

Overall, in 2011, the Hindi GEC genre showed a consistent growth in the one-hour special fiction episodes during prime time on weekends. After witnessing a drop in the number of new launches in 2010 as compared to 2009, 2011 once again saw an upswing in the number of new launches, with daily soaps topping the count, followed by comedy series and reality shows. The total number of shows launched in 2011, 2010 and 2009 were 82, 76 and 92, respectively.

According to the report, Delhi, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat have been the top performing markets for the Hindi GEC genre across years, and the viewership returns from metros have seen a slight drop.

Reflecting on the other genres:

Sports Genre

Reflecting on the other genres, the report suggests that the sports genre witnessed 200 million unique viewers in the year 2011. There has been an 18 per cent rise in sports content on TV during the year when compared to 2010.

While cricket continues to remain the No. 1 sport in the country as far as viewership is concerned, rankings of wrestling, golf, basketball, volleyball and baseball improved during the year when compared to the previous year. Live sports coverage continued to garner over 50 per cent of the viewing for any sports content. Also, 2011 saw 35 per cent growth in advertising volumes, wherein 70 per cent of volumes continued to be garnered by cricket.

Hindi movie genre

The Hindi movie genre holds about 15 per cent of the total TV viewing pie. The genre has seen a nominal growth in overall viewing post IPL, 2011.

The number of unique movies aired in 2011 decreased by 10 per cent, while both airtime and viewership of dubbed movies from the South have seen a clear growth during the year. However, the viewership levels of movie premieres in 2011 was significantly high as compared to those of 2010. Also, top movies in 2011 were repeated more number of times to attain higher viewership levels.

The share of Hindi news genre has witnessed 10 per cent growth in 2011, after decreasing in 2010. The report states that contribution from news bulletins has witnessed an appreciable increase, while viewing proportion from telecast of review/reports has witnessed a decline across the years.

English entertainment genre

For the English entertainment genre, the overall GRPs have increased by almost 50 per cent, with reach and time spent contributing to the gain. An increase in digital penetration across the key metro markets has led to a greater access for the channels. The growth in consumption is primarily led by time spent, which has shown 15-20 per cent increase.

While in the past, movies and soaps have been a big draw, the launch of new channels in the genre has brought in more variety to the content, wherein action thrillers and comedies have started gaining audiences, too.

With the usage of digital TV platforms, the genre has started to create more access and build loyal audiences among males in the upper socio economic groups of A and B.

Kids' genre

Within the kids' genre, the overall growth was 18 per cent, primarily on the back of new channel launches in 2011 (Maa Junior, Kochu TV and Sonic Nickelodeon). Today, 14 channels constitute the genre. With the increase in number of channels, the kids genre witnessed a continuous increase in viewership share since 2008. Also, the reach levels for 10-14 years age band has improved in 2011.

Interestingly, the report notes that homes with kids are faster in adopting digital TV platforms, with growth rate touching almost 60 per cent in 2011.

Eyeing the regional TV market

In the Tamil Nadu market, digital penetration has increased by 17 per cent, suggests the new report. The increase in viewership is primarily because of increase in time spent levels by 3 per cent in the Tamil Nadu market. Tamil GECs, music and sports witnessed increase in viewership.

In Andhra Pradesh, digital penetration has just touched 8 per cent. While the overall time spent on TV is high (over three hours daily), its growth is just 1 per cent over 2010.

In Karnataka, it's the Kannada GECs and news genres that are primarily on a growth track in viewership. While serials have provided almost three times the RoI, the growth in viewing for this genre has continued to be an average of almost 20 per cent in 2011.

In the Kerala market, the time spent fell by 6 per cent and has thus resulted in the overall TV viewing coming down in 2011. However, the introduction of new channels has resulted in a growth in viewing again in the last few weeks of 2011. Malayalam GECs dominate with a lion's share of 50 per cent, with news, movies and music following next. Also, the Malayalam kids content viewership moved upward with the launch of the new channel, Kochu TV.

Viewership of Bangla regional has witnessed a steady and fast growth - from 5 per cent share in 2000 to 43 per cent in 2011, eating into the Hindi channel viewership. There was growth in ratings for regional movies and events as compared to Hindi movies and events.

In the Maharashtra market, although the total TV viewing pattern remained steady, viewership of Marathi regional has seen a growth over last year. The major growth was seen on digital TV platforms (31 per cent), as compared to the analog TV viewers (13 per cent).

Also, unlike 2010, the Marathi GEC genre had prioritised the airtime mostly for higher RoI generating content such as fiction, movies and reality shows. Chat shows and interviews (in Marathi news channels) now constitute about 12 per cent of airtime, contributing about 14 per cent of total viewership.