NEW DELHI: As per the sixth edition of BARC-Nielsen data, which shares insight into the media habits during the COVID2019 period, brands that advertised heavily during summers have seen a drop in FCTs as compared to the weeks 14-16 of 2019. However, most of the categories sustained FCT levels in week 16 of 2020 as compared to the previous week, with soft drinks and squashes seeing a marginal increase. 

Also, the overall FCT, across genres, remained largely stable in week 16, noticing just one per cent dip in overall numbers as compared to the past week. 

News genre kept growing compared to pre-COVID period with Hindi, English, Gujarati and Oriya channels witnessing the highest growth when it comes to FCT. There has been a marginal dip in several languages, however, as compared to week 15. 

Inventory levels of top 10 brands dropped marginally, by four per cent, as compared to the past week. For the next 40 brands, the drop was 10 per cent. The number of total brands on TV also witnessed a marginal drop, as compared to week 15. It went from 2013 brands in week 15 to 1947 brands in week 16. 

Several top advertisers increased their inventory across genres while GSK, ITC and Colgate increased FCTs on GECs, Reckitt Benckiser, HUL and National Informatics Centre on news channels. GSK, Colgate, and Amazon upped their FCTs on movie channels.