Recently, BARC – Broadcast Audience Research Council of India has made a systematic analysis on two major media markets that are considered as Macro Markets in the Indian media i.e., North and South.
Indian media space is divided by two major markets HSM – Hindi Speaking Market and the Southern Market with Second largest ad revenue pie and the segment of viewership that seems sharing it like two different countries.
BARC had taken a step ahead to come through with a refined output by gearing up the process of research with no stone unmoved.
The matter of issue for analysis and the questions are just as general as it would arise among the ardent media observers.
- What makes the viewership of Southern India different from that of the Hindi Speaking Market?
- If Southern States differ from each other in terms of program theme preference, Average Time Spent or All Day Trend (ATS) vs Opportunity to See (OTS) and performance of product categories, how is it scaled?
- How are the Urban and Rural markets of Southern States different from each other?
- Does the Hindi content dubbed in Southern languages get the required and targeted response?
- How do the broadcasters and media professionals observe Southern India TV space?
Before getting into the reports of observation and the relevant views on the analysis, we are put to look into certain major factors that would put it on a clear view.
Film based content is one of the biggest program themes in South across different categories of channels.
Unlike HSM, Southern India differs in the viewership trend that begins up early during morning hours and ends up earlier which reduces during late night hours.
Southern audiences are program theme loyal and not channel genre loyal.
Among the four states of South India, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh / Telangana are scaled as more or less similar whereas Karnataka and Kerala noticeably differ in terms OTS vs ATS. Does this mean that the Southern market is divided in vertically viz., Western vs Eastern States?
Food & Beverage is the most viewed product category in TN, AP/Telangana and Kerala whereas personal care / personal hygiene is one of the most popular categories in Karnataka.
Lifestyle based content attracts higher viewership in Karnataka.
Southern audiences spend more time viewing teleserials than film-based content.
Compared to Rural market, Urban market shows interest in late night television viewing across the four states of the Southern Region.
We shall look into the matter in detail with a thorough scrutiny made on the 5 major questions lined up above, in order to bring out a balanced and justified conclusion. Look forward to the articles to line up in this column.
To be continued….. Keep following for more detailed insight.
