Television has always been the biggest draw of crowd since the early seventies in India. Today, it is perhaps as big as the entire continent of Europe. The Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC), the country’s TV viewership monitoring agency, has increased its estimates for audience size and television penetration, saying the medium now is watched by 780 million citizens in the South Asian nation. By comparison, Europe has a population of about 745 million. After the update, the homes with a television set in the country have gone up to 183 million from 154 million, implying an increase in TV penetration to 64%, from the earlier estimate of 54%. The marked increase follows the latest broadcast India survey, the largest ever research study undertaken to ascertain TV universe and television viewing habits in India. Fieldwork for the broadcast India survey was carried out between November 2015 to February 2016, covering 300,000 homes across 590 districts, touching about 4,300 towns and villages.
In an exclusive interview with Euronews, Partho Dasgupta, CEO of BARC India said, “The TV universe in India is ever growing and changing and so is the profit and choice of a TV viewer. The last survey done was in 2013 and the last census was in 2011. The consumer and viewer landscape is changing rapidly with electrification, prosperity, changing modes of signal and digitisation.”
India TV viewing
To what extent is television viewing popular in India?
Partho: India has the largest TV viewership measurement panel in the world with close to 100,000 individuals. BARC India runs a panel of 20,000 households and plans to reach 50,000 households by the end of 2019. With a universe of 780 million TV watching individuals, 26.7 billion weekly impressions and an average time spent of 3 hours and 24 minutes, television viewership in India is huge, and still growing. This also reflects in advertiser affinity for the medium, which still accounts for 45% of the total advertising spend in the country.
Within this huge market, dramas has 53% viewership, movies 17% and news 11%, are the three most preferred programme genres. More specifically, how does international content perform in India?
Partho: International TV content, which falls largely under our genres of English entertainment and English movies has a loyal and growing viewership in India which derives directly from the large base of English speaking population in India. We have seen a spike in both English movies and English entertainment genre viewership which grew by 42% and 23% respectively over the previous year. An interesting insight is that English language content is consumed outside of big cities as well, with as much as 60% viewership for English entertainment coming from Tier II and Tier III markets. English fiction shows are well received by Indian audiences. Shows such as Suits, Supergirl, Quantico have done very well on Indian television with channels seeing huge spikes in viewership when these shows were aired.
How large is the sports offer on Indian TV channels?
Partho: When it comes to sports, while cricket remains the most popular on Indian television, premium sports events like the Barclays Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Tennis Grand Slams, WWE and Rio Olympics have also proved to be a hit with Indian viewers. The popularity of these sports properties can be gauged from the fact that there are currently 22 sports channels (10 of which are in HD) catering to dedicated viewers of these sports events. A global sporting event like Rio Olympics was watched by 203.8 million unique viewers in India.
You recently released your Broadcast India 2016 survey. What were the main highlights?
Partho: BARC India’s Broadcast India (BI) Survey is the largest ever Research Study undertaken to ascertain TV universe & television viewing habits in India, as well as mapping consumer profiles and behaviour. With this, we have updated and aligned our TV universe in line with current demographics, TV ownership, language preferences, changes in socio-economic profile etc. According to the study, TV owning households in the country have gone up from 154 million in 2015 to 183 million. The current TV viewing universe stands at 780 million individuals, a 16% jump from 2015. 64% of households in India own a TV, which shows huge headroom for growth for the sector. While earlier urban and rural India had an almost equal split of TV homes, rural India now has 17% more TV homes than urban India, a relevant fact for broadcasters and advertisers. Our study also highlights growing importance of the middle class in India: TV households in mid-two socioeconomic categories have shown highest growth, thereby increasing their share and importance in overall TV viewership. While percentage of top socio economic category is largely flat, the share of bottom categories has actually dropped from 23% to 20%. The combined share of the two mid socio economic categories has risen from 55% to 59% of the total TV universe. We also observe a growing fragmentation of family sizes, leading to rise in share of nuclear families, and drop in average family sizes. This trend is in line with rising economic growth and prosperity. India has more nuclear families than ever before, and this is also the dominant family group among TV owning homes. While composition of joint families in the universe has come down from 26% to 22%, nuclear families without elders have grown from 53% to 58%. Migration between states, improvement in electricity supply and infrastructure and rise in overall consumption in rural India has contributed to these trends. A new report published by Media Partners Asia (MPA) indicates that net advertising revenues in Asia- Pacific, measured after discounts across 14 markets, grew by 6.8% in 2016 to reach US$170 billion, compared with an 8.5% expansion in 2015. Ad spending across these markets will increase by a further 6.4% in 2017, and at a 4.9% CAGR between 2017 and 2022, according to MPA forecasts. This follows a 7.6% CAGR between 2012 and 2017. Commenting on the findings of the report in the latest edition of Asia- Pacific Advertising Trends, MPA Executive Director Vivek Couto said, “Future growth is becoming more challenged, as markets mature and working populations stagnate or decline. This leaves China and India as the main dynamos of advertising growth. While Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand are also important growth economies, they lag China and India in scale. Growth trajectories for the region’s other scale markets, Australia, Japan and Korea, are markedly lower than they have been in the past, especially for Korea.” India is set to become Asia-Pacific’s best performing ad market over the next five years, with net ad revenue expanding at a 13.1% CAGR between 2017 and 2022. This will help India overtake Australia to become the region’s third largest ad market by 2022, after China and Japan. Australia will fall to fourth place, while Korea will remain in fifth.
Another US$50 billion in net ad revenue by 2022
Over this period, net ad revenue across the 14 markets measured by MPA will rise from US$180 billion in 2017 to US$230 billion by 2022. In China, the region’s biggest advertising market, net ad revenue will reach US$121 billion by 2022, from US$90 billion in 2017. In Japan, net ad revenue will total US$50 billion by 2022, from US$46 billion in 2017. India, forecast to enjoy the fastest growth over the next five years, will see net ad revenue expanding to US$17.1 billion by 2022, up from US$9.2 billion in 2017. For Australia, another mature market, net ad revenue will rise to US$13.2 billion by 2022, from US$11.8 billion in 2017. Despite slow growth, Korea will hold onto its position as Asia Pacific’s fifth largest ad market, with net ad revenue touching US$9.7 billion by 2022, up from US$9.0 billion in 2017. Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest ad market, will remain in sixth place, generating US$3.2 billion in net ad revenue by 2022. Indonesia will be closely followed by Taiwan and then the Philippines, which is poised to leap from 11th place among APAC’s biggest ad markets in 2017 to 8th place by 2022, thanks to an expected 11.4% five-year CAGR. That momentum will make the Philippines the second-fastest growing ad market after India, among the 14 Asia-Pacific markets measured by MPA. Thailand follows as the third quickest, with a 6.8% CAGR forecast for 2017 to 2022. Next is Indonesia, projected to notch up a 6.2% CAGR over the same period. “Domestic demand is stabilising across key Asian economies, helping boost consumption, which is encouraging for advertising expenditure,” Couto said. “External demand is also improving, as exports reach new highs in a number of markets, but activity may decelerate significantly in 2H 2017. In general, economic growth is slowing down, although among growth markets, China, India, Indonesia and the Philippines remain strong. Among mature markets, Japan is proving to be somewhat resilient and robust.”
Internet advertising top in eight markets by 2022
Internet advertising continues to grow at a redhot pace, climbing 20.8% in 2016 across the 14 markets in MPA’s report to reach US$66 billion. In 2016, the internet was the biggest medium for advertising in Australia, China, Korea, New Zealand and Taiwan. MPA expects that by 2022, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore will join their ranks. Television advertising remains robust in many territories, especially in India, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. However, net TV ad spend as a whole slightly contracted in 2016, by 0.5% across the 14 markets surveyed by MPA. Free-to-air TV ad revenues are becoming weaker in Australia and Korea among larger markets and in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore among smaller markets. Nonetheless, TV will still be the largest ad medium in India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam by 2022. At the same time, the internet will also become the second-largest ad medium in these geographies over the next five years. The biggest swings will take place in Southeast Asia, as mobile and video advertising drive internet ad spends to new heights. “Consumers are spending more time on mobile, social and online video platforms, driving demand for internet advertising,” Couto notes. “In most places, Google, including YouTube, and Facebook are dominant. In some markets however, especially in India, Japan and Korea, local digital players, as well as key incumbents in TV and print, are beginning to grab a bigger slice of the pie. China, meanwhile, is entirely dominated by a local ecosystem.” Asia-Pacific Advertising Trends, published annually, contains detailed analysis of media across 14 markets in Asia-Pacific. Key metrics include: historical and Vivek Couto, MPA Executive Director Tina Ann Philip in Ek Aastha Aisi Bhi projected data (2008 to 2022); net advertising revenues across TV, internet (search, display and online video), print (newspapers and magazines), out-of-home, radio and others, including cinema; macroeconomic analysis and impact; and analysis of key drivers and challenges by market. Market coverage comprises: Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
China & India Power Asia-Pacific Ad revenue growth to 6.8% in 2016, 6.4% in 2017
• India will be APAC’s fastest growing major ad market over the next five years, motoring ahead at a 13.1% CAGR.
• China remains a mighty growth engine, set to become a US$121 billion ad market by 2022, from US$90 billion in 2017.
• The Philippines is also poised for dynamic growth in ad spend, second to India, with an 11.4% projected CAGR for 2017-22.
• Internet ad revenue surged forward 20.1% in 2016; ad spend on free-to-air TV slightly shrank, down 0.5% over the year.
• Growth trajectories for ad revenue in Australia, Korea and Japan, large scale markets, are maturing across media.