Year End Specials: The small screen grew bigger in 2017

From Prime Minister Modi to Virat Kohli, television viewing clustered around a new set of viewership magnets in 2017

Indians love their daily dose of entertainment and there was never a better time for the viewer than the year that’s winding down. There are now about 780 million individuals connected to TV and for the average TV viewer, 2017 was like being a kid in a candy store: with 850 plus licensed channels, Indian viewers were spoilt for choice.
 
What were the big events that shook up the TV landscape in 2017? Apart from the growth in TV penetration, DAS-IV finally went into overdrive, and digitisation spread its reach. This conversion of ‘analogue cable homes’ into ‘digital homes’ exposed many households to a wider spectrum of content (more TV channels at their fingertips). More to choose from meant more surfing, which resulted in a fragmented viewership map.

 
Cricket, movies and politics were the three top draws on TV. But within those buckets there were some new trends, and also some discernible changes in viewership patterns. That Indians are drawn to stars is well known, but we were able to identify some new viewership magnets this year.

 
But first, some numbers to set the context. Contrary to the opinions voiced by some commentators, TV consumption continued to grow. Total TV viewership saw a 23 per cent spike over the previous year, time spent watching grew six per cent, and the number of people watching TV rose 17 per cent. While the highest weekly viewership recorded in 2016 was 26.6 billion impressions, 30.3 billion impressions was the new peak in 2017. In terms of disruptions, second screen viewing has definitely begun to shake up the ecosystem. But like what is being seen in markets across the globe, in India too, digital will grow not at the cost of, but together with TV across genres.
 

While young, affluent Indians living in metros (in TV parlance: NCCS AB, age group 15-30, mega-cities) may be glued to their handheld devices, their consumption of TV is not slowing down. Niche genres associated with such audiences are growing too. For instance, English News viewership grew 114 per cent this year. English Movies and English GEC recorded 15 per cent and 30 per cent growth respectively. Lifestyle channels have collectively grown by 10 per cent.
 
Coming to people who moved the needle as far as TV viewership is concerned, 2017 was the year of Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli. His mere presence at the crease spiked viewership by as much as 30 per cent on an average. And whenever he got out, viewership dropped by as much as 50 per cent. Advertisers and brand managers too have sought to make the most of Virat’s screen presence. One particular clothing brand that features ‘Virushka’ in a wedding scene, placed 95 per cent of its ads this year in the three weeks prior to November 11, when the marriage season kicks off. Talk of riding the brand-wagon!
 
Non-cricket sports came into their own, contributing as much as 20 per cent of the genre viewership. And a big chunk – 80 per cent– came from Kabaddi, Football and the Rio Olympics. 2017 also saw the rise of non-cricket stars like PV Sindhu and Sakshi Malik. Sample this: there was 25x growth in the number of ads featuring PV Sindhu that aired on TV in 2017 over 2016.
 
In News, PM Modi continued to be the biggest draw. On Independence Day, 26 million people tuned in to watch the PM’s address from Red Fort, despite the early hour. Viewership of Hindi News channels doubled, while that of English News channels went up 7 times (compared to previous 4-week average).
 
Movies continued to captivate viewers. But in the Hindi Speaking Market (HSM), while 2016 belonged to Salman Khan (with “Prem Ratan Dhan Payo” and “Bajrangi Bhaijan”) this year saw the rise of a new star in Prabhas and the Bahubali franchise. The first time “Bahubali - The Conclusion” was telecast, the entire genre saw a jump of 21 per cent. The repeat airing led to a spike of 18 per cent, and even in the tail end of 2017, in Week 50, “Bahubali – The Beginning” emerged as the top watched Hindi film on TV. Till date, the two Bahubali films (between the various language versions) have aired 63 times on Indian television! So on an average, one of the films was on air every week of the year!
 
In Hindi GEC, the big game changers were reality shows. The genre bet big on reality, more than doubling the share of such programmes in prime time compared to last year. These programmes delivered 1.7 million impressions per episode, which was 16 per cent higher than the 1.4 million impressions/episode garnered by fiction based shows.
 
In the regional space, we saw viewership patterns that were also impacted by spread of digitisation. In Maharashtra for instance, viewers showed their preference for general entertainment and Music, while in West Bengal, viewers increased their consumption of movies. In the south, movies were a big draw, especially in Tamil Nadu and AP/Telangana. Kerala and Karnataka however showed a strong preference for News.
 
Another big disruption that is re-shaping television consumption in India is growth of HD: both in terms of number of channels as well as viewership. Over the year, number of HD channels has grown 41 per cent while viewership has risen 169 per cent. 2018 will hold out more surprises as the landscape sees more churn and change and the viewers wield their remote powers even more aggressively. Get set for a new set of magnets.  The author  is CEO BARC India

Next: We end the series on Monday with two columns, by K V Sridhar and by Bharat Bambawale  on what 2018 holds out for advertisers and marketers