The BARC India has just completed the Roadshow on What India Really Watches! that was held in Delhi on 2nd September, Chennai on 3rd September, Bangalore on 4th September and in Mumbai on 7th September as a prelude to its plans to release the Rural ratings from the end of September.
During the BARC India’s Roadshow on What India Really Watches! , the measurement agency has revealed its findings on TV consumption pattern in Rural India with many interesting facts.
BARC India’s Rural Ratings report titled ‘Time to go rural’ are likely to have major impact on the overall viewership once the rural data is integrated into the all-India viewership data.
The Rural report was prepared based on the 2011 Census and there has been a 75 per cent growth in the proportion of TV households in rural India.
In all India, there are 153.5 million TV owning households, of which 77.5 million are urban TV households. Of these, 57.1 million households are in 1 lakh+ towns. BARC currently covers 55 million households.
Once the rural data is implemented, the 30-minute gross impression (sum of ratings in 000s) will go up 2.5 times to a whopping 19.52 billion, much larger than the markets such as the US, the UK and Australia. Urban and rural accounted for 19.52 billion 30-minute gross impressions (derived from average for week 21-week 32). Of this, 8.8 billion half-hour gross impressions were from rural. Urban accounted for 10.7 billion 30-minute gross impressions, of which 7.7 billion were from 1 lakh+ C&S markets.
The average daily reach will go up by three times with the inclusion of rural. BARC estimates the daily reach to rise to 450 million. Compared to this, the figure for United Kingdom stands at 40 million.
The all India (urban + rural) average time spent (weeks 21-32) was pegged at 3 hours, 3 minutes and 25 seconds. Of this, rural accounted for 2 hours, 43 minutes and 26 seconds, while the urban time spent was 3 hours, 24 minutes and 17 seconds. The number for 1L+ C&S was pegged at 3 hours, 31 minutes and 30 seconds.
Another key factor found in rural report was that 2 in 5 rural audiences are in NCCS AB.
The above data shows, 23.3 per cent rural audiences are in NCCS B, while 15.9 per cent are in NCCS A. A total of 39.2 per cent audience in rural India are in NCCS AB. The figure for NCCS C is pegged at 46.3 per cent, while it is 14.6 per cent in NCCS DE.
Another key average finding (weeks 21-32) is that 55.6 per cent of rural audiences fall into the age group of 15-40 years. At 20.6 per cent, rural India accounts for the highest share in audiences in the 22-30 age bracket.
Even in the 15-21 age group, the rural viewership isn’t far behind at 17.4 per cent. The maximum viewership in this age group was equally divided in both urban and 1L+ C&S.
Odisha has maximum rural viewers with 65%
As per the above data, [All India (urban+rural),week 21-32, 2015 avg], rural contribution is more than 50 per cent in key large geographies such as PHCHPJK (Punjab, Haryana, Union territory of Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu & Kashmir), Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
As per the data, the state of Odisha accounted for a rural viewership of 65 per cent, while Bihar came second with 59 per cent. Rajasthan posted rural viewership of 54 per cent, while Karnataka’s rural viewership was pegged at 48 per cent. while Tamil Nadu and Kerala has 46% and 45% Rural contribution respectively.
The PHCHPJK regions accounted for 59 per cent. Assam and the North-East had rural viewership of 58 per cent, while the states of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand had rural viewership of 55 per cent.
The Rural India also has starts watching the TV as early as 5:30AM and their Prime Time goes up to 9:00 PM to 9:30 PM, the Rural Prime time viewership starts dwindling drastically from 9:00 to 9:30 PM thus proving the theory that Rural goes to bed early.
