Telling Numbers: Entertainment makes half of TV viewership, South content rules

In GEC viewership, Hindi continues to enjoy pole position among all languages but the defining trend of 2018, the BARC India survey found, was the growth of regional GEC.

When comparing GEC viewership in states as a proportion of overall viewership, six state groups show a higher share of GEC than the national average of 52%.

The general entertainment category (GEC) is the most preferred genre of TV viewers in India. In 2018, GEC channels accounted for more than half of all TV viewership (52%), according to the Yearbook of the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC India), a joint industry company of broadcasters, advertisers, and advertising and media agencies.

The share of the news segment in overall viewership, also covered in the Yearbook, was published in The Indian Express recently.

Source: BARC India Yearbook, 2018

In GEC viewership, Hindi continues to enjoy pole position among all languages but the defining trend of 2018, the BARC India survey found, was the growth of regional GEC.

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Viewers of the four southern language markets — Tamil Nadu, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam — had the highest engagement with GEC content, upwards of 2½ hours a day. English GEC featured at the bottom of this graph.

Incidentally, time spent watching TV (across all genres) is also on the upper end of the scale in the five southern states, the Yearbook noted.

Source: BARC India Yearbook, 2018

When comparing GEC viewership in states as a proportion of overall viewership, six state groups show a higher share of GEC than the national average of 52%.

The four southern state groups lead the rest, followed by Odisha at fifth and West Bengal at sixth. At the lower extreme is the group comprising Assam, the Northeast and Sikkim. Here, GEC contributes to a little over one-third of overall viewership.

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