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The pervasive digital revolution is normally expected to make a dent into the popularity of television. The small screen becomes a traditional media with more modern digital communications invading our lives. But, this hypothesis seems to be not true, at least for now if one goes by the data put out by Broadcast Audience Research Council India (BARC India).The BARC TV Universe Estimates 2020 report reveals interesting findings.
1.TV viewing household grew 6.9% to 210 million households in 2020 from 197 million households in 2018. There are about 300 million households in India. This means that nearly two thirds of Indian households own TVs. This reveals that television penetration will continue to grow as 90 million morehouseholds are expected to own a television set.
2.TV viewing individuals witnessed an increase of 6.7%, reaching 892 million in 2020 from 836 million in 2018.
3.Women and children seem to be increasingly gluing to the TV screens more. The TV viewing female population grew by 7%, while male population grew by 6%. In terms of age-groups, the highest growth was witnessed in the “kids” category (age 2 to 14) at 9%.
4.Television is increasingly penetrating in rural India. The TV households in Urban markets grew by 4% to 91 million while rural markets have grown by 9% to 119.2 million in 2020.
5.Television is becoming more popular in North Indian than in South India and among Hindi speakers than non-Hindi speakers. Hindi speaking markets grew by 8% outpacing All India as well as the South states which grew by 5%.
6.Cable Television continues to have its strangle hold on TV viewership despite direct to home(DTH) penetration. Cable TV remains the most popular mode of signal reception, accounting for 48% of the market. The share of DTH is 32 percent.
The television is increasingly bridging caste, class, and regional divides though there is a variation in the levels of TV ownership and viewership.The pandemic has resulted in greater penetration into digital media. But at the same time the television viewership has also increased during the pandemic. The emergence of OTT platforms, faster spread of internet, and the plummeting cost of bandwidth might have also contributed to the growth of television viewership.
-By Prof K Nageshwar
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