The Covid-19 pandemic has forced upon some major changes in the lifestyle of consumers. While everyone is locked in their homes respecting the government’s efforts of curbing the coronavirus, there has been a spike in the consumption of OTT platforms and digital content overall. The pressure of bandwidth forced platforms to stream content only in standard definition in order to provide relief to internet service providers. However, Television proved to the only medium that continues to be the most easily accessible without any bandwidth issues.
Medianews4u spoke to Prathyusha Agarwal, Chief Consumer Officer, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd on the spike that ZEEL has seen and how does it continue to entertain its viewers even while television original content has come to a standstill.
Read on.
Spike in overall Television viewing
The television set, a vital part of every home, has taken over the roles of the informer, entertainer, and stress-reliever, for the entire family and society at large in these unprecedented times. The daily habit of TV viewing is growing stronger, resulting in a spike in TV consumption at an all-time high with 1.2 trillion viewing minutes, up from 959 billion viewing minutes in the previous week (Source: BARC data for the week ended 27th March 2020), making television an essential service in these solitary times. TV consumption has seen a 37% spike across India, with 622 million watching TV daily for 4 hours 40 minutes.
Growth in Movies Genre
While total TV consumption increased in week 12 across regions, the Movie genre saw an even higher jump for Hindi Movies (65% from wk2-4 and 46% from wk11) and Tamil movies (59% from wk2-4 and 31% from wk11). The genre saw maximum gain from NCCS A (64% GRPS), Male (55%) and adults (41-50) with 58% as compared to Wk11.
While there is an upward shift in the Non-Prime time viewership by 71%, the movie’s genre grew by 108% in the 6am to 6 pm slot as compared to pre lockdown period. The genre has seen an upsurge of 50% on Weekdays and 38% on weekends as compared to Wk. 11. With its strong portfolio of movie channels, ZEE is geared up to be the go-to-destination that caters to the needs of the consumers with its 4800+ strong movie library across languages.
Zee Cinema leading the movie’s genre from ZEEL
Our Hindi movie channel, Zee Cinema is uplifting the spirits of the viewers through a special movie line up comprising of youthful and edgy content like UjdaChaman, Saaho, Panipat, Hacked and more and showcasing family entertainers like Good News and Commando. On the other hand, Zee Classic is bringing the golden era alive by broadcasting popular old Bollywood classics. Our regional channels including Zee Thirai, Zee Cinema and Zee Bangla have also lined up a robust pool of films to captivate our audiences across the country. For our Hollywood movie buffs, we are launching Hollywood Blockbuster every night from 9 PM to 11pm on &flix which has a line-up of action-packed movies including Zombieland: Double Tap, Jumanji: The Next Level and Bad Boys for Life etc. to keep our younger audience engaged.
Non-primetime growth on ZEE GECs
Even as consumption of movies spiked, GECs continued to grow. The non-primetime viewership of GECs increased by 32%, indicating more audiences sampling the content and daytime shows finding favour. Our channels continue to perform well, as we customise the best of content across our GECs to ensure our viewers remain positively engaged and entertained. Taking into consideration the explosion in TV consumption and the surge in daytime viewership being witnessed, Zee TV has extended its on-demand nostalgia band from 2 pm to 6 pm, featuring the most loved shows like Jamai Raja, Choti Bahu, Pavitra Rishta, Jodha Akbar &Zindagiki Mehek amongst others.
Spreading Positivity through shows like BhabijiGhar Par Hai
Also, in the current situation, it is our responsibility to keep the audiences engaged with buoyant and feel-good content that entertains the entire family. Hence, we have also increased the quotient of light-hearted content across our channels. For instance, viewers can now enjoy Comedy Khiladigalu on Zee Kannada in the primetime band, while &TV presents one-hour laughter specials including ‘Double Dhamaka’ (Happu Ki UltanPaltan), ‘Gajab Kisse’ (Gudiya Humari Sabhi Pe Bhari) and BhabijiGhar Par Hai Poore Ek Ghante.
