BARC India releases “TV Universe Estimates 2020”

Total TV Owning Households grow 6.9% to reach 210 Mn.

World’s largest and India’s reliable television measurement body, Broadcast Audience Research Council India (BARC India), is committed to providing the industry with a currency that is a credible and trustworthy representation of What India Watches.

Home to over 1.3 Bn people across 300 Mn households, India’s television viewing universe continues to grow. Given the ever-evolving TV viewing landscape, BARC India continues its efforts to ensure the industry is provided with an accurate understanding on the progress, transformation and on-ground developments within the broadcast ecosystem.

Staying true to its commitment, BARC India along with the BARC Technical Committee (TechComm), announce the release of the ‘TV Universe Estimates 2020’ (TV UEs) that play an important role in the structuring of BARC India’s sample design and in ensuring the selected panel represents a true microcosm of India. Equally important is that TV UEs also serve to properly project audience estimates to the population.

Households and Individuals

According to BARC India’s TV UEs 2020, 210 Mn Indian households now own a TV set, an increase of 6.9% from 197 Mn in 2018. Simultaneously, TV viewing individuals also witnessed an increase of 6.7%, reaching 892 Mn from 836 Mn in 2018, an increase of 57 million individuals in 2020. TV Owning Female population grew by 7%, while male population grew by 6%. In terms of age-groups, the highest growth was witnessed in the “kids” category (age 2 to 14) at 9%.

Markets

TV households in Urban markets grew by 4% from 87.8 Mn in 2018 to 91 Mn while Rural markets have grown by 9%, up from 108.9 Mn to 119.2 Mn in 2020. While TV households across India grew by 6.9%, HSM grew by 8% outpacing All India as well as the South states which grew by 5%.

NCCS

As the Indian population continues to move up the socio-economic pyramid, changes are also observed in the NCCS profile of TV households. As per the TV UE-2020, the proportion of NCCS A and B has increased to 27% and 31% respectively while NCCS DE has further contracted to 9% of TV households in the country.

On presenting the updated TV Universe Estimates for broadcasters, advertisers, agencies and other industry stakeholders, Sunil Lulla, chief executive officer, BARC India, said, “As a body that is deeply rooted in data science, BARC India is committed to providing its stakeholders with a true representation of the television universe. We are happy we have been able to ascertain that television continues to be the screen of choice for Indians. With an additional 13 Mn TV households and an opportunity for another 90 Mn households that are yet to own a TV set, India’s broadcast ecosystem continues to have a significant potential for growth in the years to come.”

Adding to this, Dr. Derrick Gray, chief of measurement Science & Business Analytics, BARC India said, “At BARC India, we are deeply invested in providing data that is statistically accurate by factoring in changes in the various “control and weighting variables” that are shown to be highly associated with television viewing. The updated Universe Estimates, UE 2020 aptly sums up India’s linear TV ecosystem and highlights that TV owning households continue to grow. Given the global pandemic scenario, the updated estimate is robust and is developed with the help of data and findings based from various previously validated field studies. We are certain that these estimates will help the industry to a great extent. We will continue to provide the industry with a currency that is reliable and of global standards. I would like to thank the TechComm on behalf of all of us for all their support and contributions in formalising the UE 2020.”

TV UE 2020 has been developed by computing the Linear growth of TV Households and TV Individuals from Broadcast India (BI) Studies conducted in 2016 and 2018 at geographic and demographic levels. The distribution of the TV population by NCCS was taken from the most recent Indian Readership Survey (IRS). BARC India will implement the findings from the TV Universe Estimates 2020 for its data starting Week 14, 2021, which will release on 16th April 2021. The updated estimates will reflect for BARC India subscribers in the YUMI Analytics platform with immediate effect.