Telling Numbers: News just 7% of TV viewership, airs more ads than film channels

According to the 2018 Yearbook of the Broadcast Audience Research Council, the news genre aired 515 million ad seconds of advertisement during 2018. Hindi, Bangla and Telugu news channels get more than 50% of advertising in the news genre.

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The news genre clocked more advertisement (by duration) than general entertainment channels and movies in 2018.

News accounts for only 7% of total TV viewership in India, according to the 2018 Yearbook of the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC India), a joint industry company of broadcasters, advertisers, and advertising and media agencies. Yet the news genre clocked more advertisement (by duration) than general entertainment channels and movies.

The news genre aired 515 million ad seconds of advertisement during 2018, the Yearbook said. Hindi, Bangla and Telugu news channels get more than 50% of advertising in the news genre.

Hindi also accounts for the highest number of news channels at 66, followed by Telugu at 19, and English and Tamil at 13 each.

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Events that grabbed attention during 2018 included a series of high-stakes elections, death of Bollywood and political figures, natural calamities like Kerala floods and Cyclone Titli, and sports events like the FIFA World Cup and the Asian Games.

Viewers spent a little more than 30 minutes daily watching news, across all languages. Within each language, the time spent on news varied widely from state to state.

While news accounted for a 7% share in overall TV viewership, this varied from state to state.

The highest share of news in any group of states was in Assam, Northeast and Sikkim, at 15%. The lowest share was 4% in Gujarat, Daman & Diu, and Dadra & Nagar Haveli.

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Among the other state groups, the share of news in overall viewership was 8% in Bihar/Jharkhand, 7% in Andhra Pradesh/Telangana, 8% in the group comprising Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir, 9% in Karnataka, 11% in Kerala, % in Maharashtra & Goa, 7% in MP and Chhattisgarh, 8% in Rajasthan, 9% in Odisha, 5% in Tamil Nadu & Puducherry, 8% in UP % Uttarakhand, and 7% in West Bengal.

News had a weekly average of 1,931 million impressions nationwide. This was the highest in Maharashtra & Goa (249) and Andhra Pradesh & Telangana (245).