Abstract
The following article contains an evaluation of TV viewership pattern for last 10 weeks. It gives us insights about how India watched television in the last 3 months and what effect IPL 2018 and FIFA 2018 had on it. Following are few interesting tidbits from the article:
- GEC channels lost some of its viewership during IPL 2018 and FIFA 2018, due to clash during the prime and late prime time band.
- This dip was more during IPL 2018 as compared to FIFA 2018 across India except in North Eastern states and Kerala.
Through this article, we have tried to find the answers to questions about the popularity of IPL 2018 and FIFA 2018 and how it demonstrates on TV viewership; Indian households mostly being single TV households.
Read on to know more about the exercise and the outcome.
Introduction
This article is an attempt to understand if the so-called IPL and FIFA Fever have had any effect on the TV Viewership pattern of India, given the variety of languages and diversity in the taste of different regions of the country. Interestingly, as we would see in the next section, about 97% of the Indian TV Household is basically one- TV Household. This not only means there exist co-watching and passive watching but also a power struggle for control over the TV remote control. The prime time and late prime time band are usually dominated by serial based content which leads to the very high viewership of the General Entertainment Channels. This year, both IPL and FIFA World Cup matches have competed in the prime time and late prime time band. While IPL has concluded in the last week of May 2018, FIFA is on-going. What trends have emerged in the last 10 weeks and what can advertisers learn from this?
The TV Landscape of India (Source: BARC India)
Individual TV Watchers in India: 780 Million
Total number of Households with TV: 183 Million
Number of Rural Households with TV: 99 Million (52% Penetration)
Number of Urban Households with TV: 84 Million (87% Penetration)
Percentage of households still having one television for the entire family: 97%
Percentage of NCCS A+ Large Joint Family Households having a single TV: 77%
This means India still believes in One Family, One Television. Watching Television is a family pastime which irrespective of the situation remains constant.
A Closer Look at last ten weeks in the TV Universe of India
Last ten weeks i.e. Week 15 to Week 25, were marked by two most popular and commercially successful sporting events- IPL 2018 and FIFA World Cup 2018 with a gap of two weeks in between. Following is a detailed timeline of the events:
Week 15: IPL 2018 Launch followed by League Matches
Week 16- Week 20: IPL 2018 League Matches
Sunrisers Hyderabad, Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders, and Rajasthan Royals qualified for the Play-Offs
Week 21: IPL 2018 Play-Offs and Final
Week 22- Week 23: No Matches
Week 24- Week 28: FIFA World Cup 2018
IPL 2018 was telecasted on Star Sports Channels while FIFA World Cup 2018 is being broadcasted on Sony Ten Channels.
Trend Analysis of TV Viewership over the last 10 weeks
Before we talk about the trends in TV Viewership, let us see how IPL 2018 and FIFA World Cup have fared in terms of Google search.
As we can clearly see, IPL 2018 was a very popular search term across the IPL 2018 tournament duration. The number of searches is higher at the beginning of the tournament and during the Play-Offs and Final. As the Premier League drew to an end, the buzz around it died too. As soon as it happened, 2018 FIFA World Cup came into the picture. However, the buzz around the FIFA is not as strong as that of IPL 2018 but it is on an increasing trend as we move towards the quarterfinals.
The reason is quiet clear there. IPL 2018 is a home-grown series of cricket, which is worshipped in India. Adding fuel to the fire, the teams are christened on names of different states of India. Hence, IPL brings out the raw emotions of people associated to their own region and language. On the contrary, India is still years away from marking its presence in the Global Football Arena. This lack of a personal stake in the sports of Football is one of the reasons why FIFA World Cup 2018 lacks a mass appeal. However, in the next screenshot, we would get to know that there are few regions of India where FIFA 2018 enjoys equal or more popularity than IPL 2018.
As we can see above, in the North Eastern states and Kerala, FIFA 2018 seems to be as popular as IPL 2018. So based on this, we can draw the following hypotheses:
- IPL 2018 changed the TV Viewership pattern of India during the month of April-May. Remember? 97% of the TV Households have a single TV and the prime time bands are mostly dominated by Serial based Content (GEC Channels).
- FIFA 2018 has a strong hold on the North Eastern states and Kerala.
Scope of Analysis and Methodology
The data we are looking at is for NCCS A+B, Gender- Male and Age Group: 15-40. The geographies that we have selected are India Urban, Top 6 Metro cities, Kerala Urban and Assam + NE. We would plot the performance of top GEC Channels, Star Sports Channels (IPL 2018 Broadcasting Channels) and Sony Ten Channels (FIFA 2018 Broadcasting Channels) over the last 10 weeks (Week 15 to Week 25) to see if our hypotheses hold true.
Data Set 1: India Urban
Data Set 2: Top 6 Metros
Data Set 3: Kerala
Data Set 4: Assam & North East
What did we infer from the above data?
From the charts above, we can infer the following points:
- There is a dip in the GEC Channels share during IPL 2018 and FIFA 2018. In case of India Urban and Top 6 Metro Cities, the dip is more during IPL 2018 and minimal during FIFA 2018. However, same is not the case in Kerala and North East where GEC Channels have witnessed a significant dip during FIFA.
(Please note: the Channel share figures in the above graphs are meant only for analysing the trend and not for comparing two genres or channels. Also, note that share in one market is not comparable to share in the other market.)
Data Set 5: IPL 2018 across various markets
Data Set 6: FIFA 2018 across various markets
What did we infer from the above data?
From the charts above, we can infer the following points:
- In terms of IPL 2018, the trend has been the same for India Urban and the top 6 metro cities. However, the behaviour varies for Kerala and North Eastern states. Here, we can infer from the graph that TV Viewership behaviour during IPL 2018 has not been consistent throughout the country. This variation may have been due to teams based on the various states of India.
- While there was not any significant rise in the trend for FIFA 2018 in India Urban and top 6 metro cities TV watching behaviour, there was a tremendous increase in the TV watching behaviour of Kerala, Assam and North East states.
The above analysis can be extended to the entire country and other TGs to confirm the above inference and gain some deeper insights.
What can the above analysis mean for the advertisers?
Currently, the promotion packages during sporting tournaments of large scale are usually bought by companies having deep pockets and nationwide presence. Hence, the planning too happens at a national level and regional cues are often missed. There is a huge opportunity to fill this gap by checking the pulse of regional markets and supporting local level campaigns. This would not only strengthen the regional hold of national level brands but also give a boost to the local brands.
Conclusion
We are in the middle of the FIFA 2018 World Cup with two weeks to go. A similar trend analysis after the FIFA 2018 World Cup would give a better insight to us about TV watching behaviour of FIFA World Cup fans in India. The deduction that we drew from the charts above that says there was a dip in the share of GEC channels also gives us a cue that female audience too is a passive watcher of these sporting tournaments. It would be very interesting to analyse other TGs and the nature of advertisements during the tournaments to know whether there is a hidden opportunity to reach out to other target groups as well.
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