BENGALURU: Has the tenth edition of the T20 cricket bonanza Indian Premier League (IPL 10) increased television viewership in India? Here below is a preliminary statistical analysis of Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) for Top 10 Channels *Across Genre: All India (U+R) : 2+ Individuals for weeks 1 to 18 of 2017 supported by other BARC data and inputs. BARC week 1 to 18 means the period between Saturday, 31 December 2016 and Friday 5 May 2017.
BCCI’s official full list of IPL broadcasting TV and digital streaming channels in various countries says that Sony Pictures Network (SPN) channels Sony SIX, Sony SIX HD (Both commentry in English), Sony Max, Sony Max HD (Both commentary in Hindi), Sony ESPN (Commentary in Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Hindi) will broadcast the event into India. Live streaming in India will be on Hotstar. Has the sport eaten into viewership of existing channels- well the answer could be a yes and a no, depending upon the way one looks at it.Read on to know more…
It may be noted that BARC data of 30 different genres/languages/markets across differing NCCS, plus data of the top 10 channelsacross genres plus top 10 advertisers and brands across genres is available for public access. This paper uses the data for Top 10 channels across genres a yardstick, and BARC data for Top 10 Hindi GEC channelsHSM (U+R) :NCCS All : 2+ Individuals; BARC Data for Top 5 Tamil channels Tamil Nadu/ Puducherry (U+R) markets : NCCS All : 2+ Individuals; BARC data for Top 10 Telugu channels AP/ Telangana (U+R) markets : NCCS All : 2+ Individuals to support some of its findings. This paper is limited to that extent, which must be borne in mind.
IPL 10 has increased television viewership in India?
IPL 10 commenced in week 14 of 2017.Using BARC’s weekly data for the top 10 television channels across genres, the simple average of weekly impressions (18 week average CWI) of all the top 10 channels per week during the first 18 weeks of 2017 (18 week average CWI) works out to 62,28,061.111 (000s) Sums. The 13 week average CWI for the top 10 television channels across genres was 60,08,108.385(000s) Sums. CWI could indicate the sum of the weekly impressions of all the channels of a genre for the indicated week or the sum of weekly impressions of a channel in a genre spanning the period under consideration. The most commonly referred periods in this paper are 18 and 13 weeks.
In week 14 of 2017 Sony Max entered the list at second rank and then climbed to rank 1 in weeks 15, 16, 17 and 18. Sony Six entered the list in week 15 with Weekly Impressions of 4,58,933 (000s) Sums at tenth rank.Sony Six was not present in the top 10 channels across genres lists during earlier or in weeks 16, 17 and 18 of 2017.
In week 14, CWI of the top 10 channels across genre dipped as compared to week 17 and then climbed to the highest ever in 2017 until now (week 18), only to dip in week 16,and the dip even further in weeks 17 and 18.
BARCIndia is the official Twitter handle of BARC India. In a series of tweets under #SeasonalSwing, BARC has mentioned some performances for week 18 of 2017. In one tweet, BARC has said “Viewership during prime time gets affected due to summer heat. Similar #SeasonalSwingseen in 2016 as well’. An animation in the same tweet says that “AS MERCURY RISES, PRIMETIME VIEWING DIPS, INDICATING #SEASONALSWING OF TV VIEWERSHIP”. BARC has further tweeted that ‘TV viewership in week 18 was 26.1 billion impressions under #SesonalSwing.” In a series of other tweets under this hashtag, BARC has revealed performances of somechannels/programmes in week 18.
Please refer to the figure below:
The 13 week average CWI the top 10 channels across genre was 60,08,108.385 (000s) Sums, signifying a growth in viewership of 3.66 percent for the average of CWI of 18 weeks (62,28,061.111 (000s) Sums). This rise seems to indicate that IPL 10 did increase TV viewership despite the summer heat. Was it also something else? The summer holidays for a large number of educational institutions in the country resulting in people spending more time watching television? Is the growth because of more riveting content on television? Or …?
As mentioned above, in week 15 of 2017, CWI was the highest ever during the 18 weeks at 72,25,717 (000s) Sums or 16.02 percent more than the average CWI over 18 weeks and 20.27 percent more than the average CWI over 13 weeks. Post the commencement of IPL 10, week 18 has shown the lowest positive deviation from both the averages at 5.87 percent and 9.75 percent (from the average CWI over 18 and 13 weeks respectively).
Please refer to the figure below:
Has IPL10 eaten into channels viewership?
Five channels were present in the weekly top 10 channels across genres list during all the 18 weeks of 2017. In descending order of CWI of 18 weeks, they are – The Sun Networks flagship Tamil GEC – Sun TV; Star India’s flagship Hindi GEC –Star Plus; Network 18 (or Viacom 18 if you will) flagship Hindi GEC Colors; The Sun Network’s Telugu GEC Gemini TV and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) flagship Hindi GEC Zee TV.
Going by the differences in the 18 week average CWI andthe 13 week average CWI of each channel,the first three – Sun TV, Star Plus and Colors seemed to have lost ratings, while the latter two seemed to have gained ratings.Was it because of summer heat, more riveting content on other channels?Was it because of the IPL or something else?
Please refer to the graph below. Using BARC data for top 10 channels across genres, Sun TV’s average CWI during the first 18 and 13 weeks of 2017 was 11,49.943.111 (000s) Sums and 11,55,543.615 (000s) Sums respectively (a drop of 0.48 percent). Since the latter figure is higher than the former, quite obviously, the channel has lost ratings during the course of the IPL which commenced in mid-week 14.
The graph–Sun TV-Deviation from 13 week average CWI below also confirms this – in weeks 16, 17 and 18, Sun TV’s ratings dropped by a fair percentage from its 13 week average CWI. On looking at BARC data for the top 5 channels in the Tamil Nadu/ Puducherry (U+R) markets: NCCSAll : 2+ Individuals spanning the first 18 weeks of 2017, Sun TV’s 18 week average CWI fell as compared to its 13 week average CWI.
However, it may be noted that BARC data for the top 5 channels in the Tamil Nadu/ Puducherry (U+R) markets indicates that overall viewership of the market grew by 0.62 percent vis-à-vis average ratings of the first 18 weeks and first 13 weeks of 2017, as compared to a decline of 0.59 percent in the case of Sun TV during the same period.
Star Plus 18 week average CWI and 13 week average CWI based on BARCdata for Top 10 channels across genres for the first 18 weeks of 2017 was 7,40,324.2222 (000s) Sums and 7,49,671.6154 (000s) Sums respectively. These numbers indicate adrop of 1.25 percent in average ratings. Please refer to the graph below which shows how Star Plus ratings have fallen after week 14 of 2017. BARC’s data for HSM (U+R): NCCSAll : 2+ Individuals – Top 10 Hindi GEC channels also reflect Star Plus’s drop in ratings - the channel saw a 1.28 percent slump between its 18 weekaverage CWI and its13 week average CWI.
Colorssaw a 2.92 percentdrop between its 18 week average CWI (6,47,851(000s) Sums) and13 weeks average CWI (6,67,356.0769 (000s) Sums). The graph below also indicates this drop starting from week 14 to week 18. BARC’s data for HSM (U+R): NCCSAll : 2+ Individuals – Top 10 Hindi GEC channels reflectsColorsdrop of 3 percent in ratings between the 18 weeks average CWI and 13 weeks average CWI.
The Sun Network’s Telugu GEC Gemini witnessed an increase of 0.96 percent in 18 week average ratings (5,68,443.1667(000s) Sums) as compared to 13 week average ratings (5,63,051.3846 (000s) Sums) based on BARC data for top 10 channels across genre. Though the channel did witness small drops in weeks 15, 17 and 18, the fall was more than cushioned by the rise in week 16 as indicated in the graph figure below.
BARC data for the top five Telugu channels - AP/ Telangana (U+R) :NCCS All : 2+ Individuals also confirms an increase of 1.09 percent for Gemini TV between the average CWI for the first 18 weeks and first 13 weeks of 2017. Overall, Telugu viewership of the top 10 Telugu channels based on the difference between the 18 week average CWI and the 13 week average CWI has dipped by 0.38 percent between weeks 13 and 18 of 2017.
Zee TV saw a growth of 1.55 percent in 18 week average CWI (5,23,273.8889 (000s) Sums) as compared to 13 week average CWI(5,15,281.6154 (000s) Sums) based on BARC data for top 10 channels across genre for weeks 1 to 18 of 2017. The graphbelow indicates that Zee TV ratings after week 9 have been more than its13 week average. This was further confirmed by BARCs’ HSM (U+R) : NCCS All : 2+ Individuals – Top 10 Hindi GEC channels data, which showed that Zee TV’s 18 week average CWI increased by 1.55 percent from its 13 week average CWI.
Overall, the Hindi GEC HSM (U+R) :NCCS All: 2+ Individuals genre saw a growth of 0.47 percent between the 18 week average CWI (47,78,337.889 (000s) Sums) and the 13 week average CWI (47,55,968.385 (000s) Sums).
Please refer to the graph below.
So has IPL grown TV viewership and has it eaten into other channels ratings?
Preliminary and basic statistical analysis of limited BARC data seems to indicate that IPL 10 has grown the viewership. Probably yes. Have GEC’s lost eyeballs because of the sporting event? Maybe it has. Data for three more weeks (weeks 19, 20 and 21) until the end of IPL 10 on Sunday, 21 May 2017 will give better insights on how and how much for both the queries. The jury is still waiting for more inputs.
