Deep diving into content and ad consumption in light of covid-19

The coverage of the BARC Nielsen smartphone panel includes audiences from both rural and urban India. This is the fifth edition of the report on ‘Crisis Consumption on TV and Smartphones’ jointly released by BARC India and Nielsen Media. BARC India is the official currency on Television Measurement in India and Nielsen Media runs a 12000 strong smartphone panel in India passively capturing smartphone behaviour. The pre-covid-19 time period being referenced is between 11th January 2020-31st January 2020 and from 13th January 2020 to 2nd February 2020. The period of covid-19-disruption is split into two weeks. 'Week 4' is between 4th March 2020 and 10th April 2020. 'Week 5' is between 11^th April 2020 to 17^th April 2020

Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India is a Joint Industry Company founded by stakeholder bodies that represent broadcasters, advertisers, and advertising and media agencies. BARC India owns and manages a transparent, accurate, and inclusive TV audience measurement system. Apart from the currency products to the TV industry, BARC India also provides a suite of Insight products designed for broadcasters, advertisers and agencies. The Big Data and insights generated by BARC India enable media spends and content decisions in the television sector.

Here are top ten takeaways from their research report.

1. 'Coronavirus' continues to be most searched among Top 100 Google searches.

2. 1 in 5 smartphone consumers use the Aarogya Setu app now - an 80 per cent + increase v/s the launch week.

3. TV consumption continues to show a growth of 40 per cent 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 per cent increase over pre covid-19 times.

5. TV viewership growth is 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 per cent.

7. Hindi GEC in HSM at an all-time high with 8.5 billion impressions with Mythological shows leading the way. HSM Urban is all time high for 3^rd 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.

Read the full report below.