Even as evening TV viewership has fallen back to its pre-COVID levels after the COVID-19 lockdown, overall TV viewership continues to remain elevated due to higher levels of daytime consumption in the era of work-from-home.
According to numbers disclosed by Sunil Lulla, CEO of TV viewership measurement agency BARC, TV viewership in India has gone back to pre-COVID levels as far as the 6 PM to 12 AM slot (prime time) is concerned. Compared to a value of 183 in January, prime time viewership rose to 202 during the lockdown, but has again fallen back to 183 for the latest week (Aug 22 to 28).
However, day-time viewership continues to remain elevated, possibly because work-from-home allows employees to catch up on TV during the day, said Sunil Lulla at the ‘Future of Video India’ conference organized by Asia Video Industry Association on Thursday. Viewership numbers for day-time slots (6 AM to 6 PM) used to be 81 in January, it continues to remain 38% higher at 111 as of late August, Lulla said.
Even during the peak of the lockdown, it was day-time viewing that showed a sharp increase of 80% compared to pre-COVID levels, while prime time viewership increased only by 10%, and this 10% has now been given up as people have gone back to their regular routines during evenings
