70% out-of-home TV viewing comes from sports, 10% from movies: BARC India

Sports-heavy weeks have had many restaurants/pubs/lounges showcasing channels airing matches

The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC India) recently launched its out of home (OOH) viewership measurement and has come out with some television viewing trends.

In the April-May period, of the total TV viewership coming from out of home, sports accounted for 70 per cent of viewership. This was followed by Movies with 10 per cent and Music with 8 per cent viewership. The trend is in line with the fact that these were sports-heavy weeks and thus saw many restaurants/pubs/lounges showcasing channels that were airing the matches. Data also shows that the viewership for sports genre was driven by channels on which IPL was aired.  

BARC’s OOH measurement tracks viewing of individuals who are aged 15 years and above across 900+ establishments in Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore, using 1,500+ meters.

A total of 44 million people, in this target group, viewed TV in pubs/lounges/restaurants etc in the three cities during April-May. Of this, 33.3 million viewers watched Live IPL matches. 

BARC India leveraged its audio watermarking technology and proven measurement capabilities to expand TV viewership measurement to OOH. This pre-subscribed service is a game changer for the industry as it uncovers a significant share of TV viewership which wasn’t being measured until now. 

“Our aim is to measure different screens and pipes and OOH is an extension of that commitment. There is a large population that consumes content on TV which is outside the bounds of home. We realised that it was important to capture those viewers as well. Before we launched rural viewership, there was blind targeting. But, inclusion of rural TV viewership helped advertisers uncover the potential of these areas. We are hoping that OOH viewership will help give better insights to advertisers and provide new opportunities,” said Partho Dasgupta, CEO, BARC India.