HD channels are quite distinct from SD with respect to viewership quality; Recently launches THINK Study from BARC explores HD viewership in further depth through a unique analysis of individuals in Households with continuous availability to an HD channel (HDCA) during the analysis period. This will help in narrowing down of a broad TG in to a more concentrated viewer who has access to HD and SD channels on a daily basis.
Among individuals in HH with continuous availability to an HD channel, the incidence of GEC channels is the highest, followed by Movies & Sports. These are also the top 3 HD genres vis a vis HD Impressions.
The genres with the highest share of minutes viewed on the HD feed are English Entertainment Channels (EEC), followed by Music. The study reveals an interesting fact that these genres do not rank highly in incidence of HDCA individuals. Both genres being interest-based and niche genres, the high share of minutes is indicative of their stickiness for these viewers.
The only genre which has both a relatively high share of HDCA individuals incidence as well as a high share of HD minutes is Sports.
The THINK study further evaluated the varying trends by language for the genres and a deep look at those genres which have wither a high incidence or a high share of HD minutes i.e. GEC, Movies, Sports & Music.
Dissecting the genres by language, It was find that the incidence of Hindi GEC and Hindi Movies is extremely high, which may also be driving the high incidence for the overall genre.
Within the Sports genre, all languages have a high share of HD minutes. This could be indicative that there is high sports consumption on HD channels, and it is language agnostic.
Several trends can be observed up on looking at the genres & languages that have a high share of HD minutes.
Firstly, looking at the share of HD minutes, It is understood that EEC and English Movies deliver a substantially high share of HD minutes vis a vis lower incidence, which is completely opposite to Hindi GEC and Hindi Movies.
Further, all English language viewership, across GEC, Movies & Sports genres, is concentrated towards a high % share of HD minutes (i.e more than 75%). This could be indicative that the typical HD viewer is likely to spend more time in consuming niche English content (primarily GEC & Movies) on HD channels
The following are Summary of highlighting trends of HD viewers that ate observed in THINK study:
- HD channels have witnessed a massive growth over the last two years. While the number of channels have gone up by only 41%, the viewership share has grown by 169%
- The Young Adults and Adults (22-40 yrs) comprise a large share of HD viewership in India (35%). These may be the new- age millennials who seek a good TV viewing experience.
- The largest contributor to HD Channel viewership in India is NCCS A. This is not surprising, given that HD is a premium offering.
- While NCCS CDE viewers are driven to HD by key events, NCCS A & NCCS B seem to be more habitual viewers of HD
- The Internet Services & Online Shopping categories are leading advertisers on HD channels. This seems plausible, given that a lot of Young adults and millennials are watching HD channels.
- The presence of Auto & Durables categories in the top 10 on HD is also not surprising, as the audience is presumably more affluent, and thus has spending power.
- GEC and Sports genres deliver better engagement (ATS) on HD channels as compared to their SD counterparts. Their viewership is mainly driven by their core content i.e. Serials for GEC channels and Cricket & Soccer for Sports channels.
- Among TV viewers in households with continuous availability to HD and SD channels, the sampling of GEC channels is the highest, followed by Movies & Sports. These are also the top 3 HD genres vis a vis Impressions.
- There seems to be high, language agnostic consumption of sports on HD feed.
- There is greater affinity towards HD viewing for niche & exclusive genres, primarily in English language.
