Demand for content on both TV and digital spiked during COVID-19 disruption period and advertisers remain upbeat about the two mediums.
In terms of viewership, TV news saw 57 percent growth in viewership across India and the growth was witnessed across all major languages.
The daily average reach of the news genre on TV grew by 34 percent, highest amid all categories.
Network 18 channels recorded a 50 percent growth in average daily reach during the week 1 of COVID-19. During the same period, Network18 reached out to more than 10 crore TV viewers on a daily basis.
In addition, the viewership on Network18 channels during morning non-prime time (6 AM to 12 PM) grew by 53 percent and afternoon prime time (12 PM - 6 PM) was up by 74 percent during COVID-19 disruption period. This is higher than the overall TV viewership during non-primetime which grew by 20 percent.
Also, while the prime time of overall TV, in terms of viewership has de-grown by two percent, the prime time on Network18 has grown by 54 percent.
Along with viewership growth, ad volumes have also grown on TV, especially news channels.
In fact, people are watching ads on news channels instead of switching to another channel.
According to Sunil Lulla, CEO, BARC, ad volumes have grown on TV and news channels have certainly shown growth in ad inventory.
The growth in viewership as well advertising on TV news could be due to two aspects.
One growth factor is that news is the only medium which is producing new content unlike GECs (General Entertainment Channels) and movies which are relying on repeat content due to halt on shooting.
Also, news content is an essential commodity and only TV and digital currently are being able to reach the audience.
Even on digital, especially smartphones, news consumption saw significant increase in consumption of news content during week 1 of COVID-19.
News consumption on smartphones saw an increase in user base by eight percent and increase in time spent (per user per week) by 17 percent.
Consumption grew by 76 percent on news apps and news aggregator apps witnessed 22 percent increase.
News websites were visited by 26 percent more users while the number of website visits per user went up by 29 percent.
While TV and digital remain strong despite the coronavirus outbreak, things are not the same for the print medium that is seeing a grimmer situation.
Advertisers are shying away from the print medium, which has led to fall in ad volumes, according to industry experts.
Even regional players are seeing drop in advertising from local businesses.
