The Ramayan re-telecast garnered the highest-ever rating for a Hindi GEC show since 2015: BARC-Nielsen report

• The Covid-19 disruption in Week 2 continued to show a huge increase in TV viewership, smartphone usership & VOD consumption according to BARC-Nielsen’s insight series titled, Crisis Consumption.
• The current week garnered the highest ever total TV consumption.
• The re-telecast of Ramayan garnered the highest-ever rating for a Hindi GEC show since 2015.

The second week of the national lockdown in wake of the COVID-19 outbreak witnessed the highest-ever TV viewing at 1.20 trillion minutes as average daily viewers grew by 62 million. Also, the time spent on smartphones in Week 2 of the COVID-19 disruption increased by almost 3 hours per week.

The findings were a part of the second edition of BARC-Nielsen’s insight series titled, Crisis Consumption.

The report further revealed that around 62 million viewers across the country watched television for 4 hours and 40 minutes daily. The average daily reach saw an 11% growth.

The total TV consumption across the country witnessed a 37% growth and the viewership grew significantly in the 3 days post the lockdown.

Moreover, non-primetime viewership further increased in Week 12 and saw over 70% surge.

News and movies witnessed an all–time high growth. GECs saw a 32% surge during non-prime time.

Considering viewership of news has gone up substantially as consumers want to stay updated about the evolving situation, the share of news to total TV grew from 7% to 21%

Moreover, the kids segment saw maximum viewership in the morning between 10 am and 12 noon.

Average Daily FCT in Week 11-12 grew by 6 lakh seconds, which was a growth of 15%. In terms of secotr-wise FCT, food & beverages saw the maximum increase in FCT share percentage followed by personal care and hygiene.

Moreover, the return of classic shows like Ramayana led to the evening slot on Sunday recording all time high numbers.

The lockdown also resulted in a lot of firsts in the TV viewing history. While news & movies recorded an all-time high growth in viewership, Hindi movies surpassed Hindi GEC in viewership. Also highest viewership was recorded in HSM for any show in Hindi GEC (Fiction/Non-Fiction).

Not surprisingly, social distancing also led to a spike in virtual social connectivity.

Meanwhile, consumers spent 45% more time on news apps and the news franchise on smartphones grew by 25%.

Time spend on video streaming apps grew by 11%.