Ad volumes on television during the unlock period has surpassed pre-Covid volumes by 12%: BARC & Nielsen report

• Total TV viewership has shown consistent growth in the last 12 weeks. Advertising volumes are slowly getting back to normal.
• Growth in current week vs pre-Covid period is seen across both Primetime (3%) and Non-Primetime(44%).
• Overall smartphone usage is slightly lower than pre-COVID levels. The drop in the recent weeks is on account of time on banned apps getting reduced.

In what will come as a relief for Television broadcasters and the advertising segment in general, the latest BARC & Nielsen reveals that ad volumes on Television during the unlock phase has now surpassed pre-Covid volumes by about 12%. The report revealed that the inventory of the top 10 advertisers increased by 34% in the unlock period as compared to the pre-Covid period.

Meanwhile, this year's Independence Day event garnered 4.6 billion viewing minutes, which was the highest viewership in the last 2 years. Interestingly, it was higher than all the previous PM addresses during COVID.

These findings are part of the eleventh edition of the report on ‘Crisis Consumption on TV and Smartphones’ jointly released by BARC India and Nielsen Media.

With GECs back with fresh content, their share grew back to pre-Covid levels.


There has also been a consistent increase in advertiser count in July and August.


While FMCG is still the biggest spender, the contribution of e-commerce and education is also steadily on the rise.



Here are some other key highlights of the report:

• Total TV viewership has shown consistent growth in the last 12 weeks – Current week Daily Average Reach is 7% higher and Average, Daily Time Spent is 13% higher than pre-COVID period.
• Growth in current week vs pre-Covid period is seen across both Primetime (3%) and Non-Primetime(44%) and also across HSM and South markets.
• Overall smartphone usage is slightly lower than pre-COVID levels. The drop in the recent weeks is on account of time on banned apps getting reduced.
• On TV, share of different genre is more or less back to pre-COVID levels – Original programming bringing back the GEC genre both in HSM and South Markets; News and Movies see a growth in Primetime.
• On Smartphones - revival seen in shopping (surpasses Pre-COVID levels in recent weeks), Education and Video Conferencing continues to grow - almost 1 in 5 people accessing them, Overall time spent on Video Streaming returns to pre-COVID levels.
• Independence Day event garnered 4.6 BN viewing minutes – highest viewership in last 2 years – also higher than all the previous PM addresses during COVID.
• Live Telecast of Ayodhya Bhoomi Pujan garnered 7.3 BN viewing minutes.
• On Content viewed on Smartphones - Sushant Singh starrer “DilBechara” tops Movie Charts in Week 1 of release, followed by action thriller “Khuda Hafiz”, “Mastram” continues to top the Original Series charts, followed by “Bandish Bandits”, “Dangerous” & “Aarya”, Share of time spent on Syndicated series on OTT increases as new programming resumes.
• AD Volumes in Unlock period surpassed Pre-Covid Volumes by ~12% - Top 10 Advertiser inventory increased by 34% in Unlock period compared to Pre COVID period.