COVID-19 IMPACT ON TV VIEWERSHIP IN INDIA SYNC INSIGHTS Introduction Given the dynamic nature of the COVID-19 pandamic around the world, this is an unprecedented time for everyone — a time that, for many, is filled with uncertainty. Our hearts and thoughts go out to everyone of you. We hope you and your family remain safe while many services may get disrupted all around us. SYNC is India’s leading TV Audience Management Platform used by many advertisers and we understand our responsibility to provide continuous services & support to our clients. In our endeavour to serve this purpose, we have prepared this report to make available the data points pertaining to Television media consumption that many may find relevant. COVID-19 pandemic has made many of us be at and work from home. While we are doing our bit of staying at home to keep ourselves and those around us safe, but also, to keep ourselves busy and occupied, a new media behaviour has started to emerge. The objective of this report is to shed more light on these emerging trends and how some of these new trends may become the new normal in the near future. So please sit back, relax and with us understand the change in Television viewership patterns in India. 2 Let’s SYNC with Reality Traditional metering based media measurement methodology collects & Extrapolation is the use of regression line for extrapolates a small data set to cover the entire viewers’ universe, thus, not prediction far outside the domain of values of the providing enough room to capture the emerging trends in extreme scenarios explanatory variable x that you used to obtain the like we face today. line or curve. Such predictions are often not accurate. People who were not watching Television at homes were covered for viewership as well, they were represented by a meter within the defined cluster somewhere and hence were part of generic trends that tend to skew towards high GRP producing channels or programming. It’s a statistics problem after all: ‘We all tend to belong to the trend, we didn’t really constitute at all ~ unknown’. But now when more of these ‘New Viewers’ are at home, they are consuming content and are creating anomalies in existing data trends. The purpose of this report is to highlight these emerging trends and how it is impacting the overall Television viewership landscape in India. Source: https://xkcd.com/ 3 #completelockdown March 24th 2020 India #juntacurfew March 19th 2020 Inflection Point March 8th 2020 Top 6 Metros Inflection Point March 6th 2020 Awareness, social distancing and mandatory lockdowns clearly coincided with the increased TV content viewership Rest of India across screens and time bands Inflection point March 11th 2020 4 Which Channel has Shown Better Performance Absolute Relative Headroom Methodology Share% W1 W2 Impact Impact Impact This report uses the concept of ‘Headroom Impact’, which provides better insights vis-à- (W2-W1) (W2-W1) (W2-W1)/ vis Absolute/Relative Impact by taking into Formula consideration the different baselines. /W1 (1-W1) Channel 1 10% 15% 5% 50% 5.6% Channel 2 40% 45% 5% 12.5% 8.3% Reporting Period Which Is Channel 1 Channel 2 is 1.5X 02nd - 29th March, 2020 channel is better than times better than better? Channel 2? No Channel 1 5 Who is Impacting? Emerging Trends New Viewers’ Profiles New Viewers: We are calling them New Viewers, who are now available to watch TV across time-bands which earlier was 63% never the case. They would have been in front of their televisions some of the 37% times but in the last 4 Weeks we have seen them consuming more content on screens across time-bands when they seldom were available. Male Female Their content choices are now affected by emerging circumstances in light of COVID- 19 related developments and 28% more TV viewing hours at their disposal. 24% 21% 19% 8% Under 18 19-25 26-35 36-45 46+ 6 What is Getting Impacted? Overall Emerging Trends Infotainment Business News Movies Kids Cable Music Comedy Sports Entertainment & Lifestyle News Relative Impact 21.6% 14.8% 32.9% 34.5% 4.3% 17.8% 74.2% -9.6% -13.4% -13.9% Headroom Impact 3.2% 3.1% 1.8% 1.0% 0.2% 0.1% 0.1% -0.1% -0.3% -15.3% Everything Actually: We are observing a shift in viewership across genres. While News as a genre is a top gainer in Headroom Impact, Movies, Kids genre are also showing a robust growth in the viewership. We are also noticing a decline in viewership for GEC as a genre in Headroom as well Relative Impact basis. 1. Impact for Week 4 is calculated basis Week 1 7 Emerging Trends Genre-wise Impact: Top 6 Metros Week on Week Comparison Relative Impact Headroom Impact Awareness, social distancing and mandatory lockdowns Genre W2 W3 W4 W2 W3 W3 have increased viewership of News channels, followed by News -6.35% 0.70% 25.90% -0.95% 0.10% 3.60% Movies and Kids programming. Movies 1.25% 3.27% 6.52% 0.26% 0.68% 1.42% Closing of schools have led to increase in viewership in Kids Kids 5.51% 11.56% 22.49% 0.29% 0.64% 1.40% genre. Infotainment & Lifestyle 1.90% 3.98% 12.34% 0.02% 0.04% 0.13% Entertainment, Sports and Comedy genres showed Music -5.60% 2.21% 3.54% -0.29% 0.11% 0.18% decline in viewership. Business News 18.74% 4.16% 29.46% 0.02% 0.01% 0.04% Comedy 10.01% -1.17% -23.77% 0.14% -0.02% -0.36% Sports -2.68% -0.74% -7.46% -0.05% -0.01% -0.14% Entertainment -0.08% -1.64% -9.29% -0.10% -1.95% -10.68% W1 is 2nd to 8th March 2020 and so on 8 Emerging Trends Genre Wise Impact: Rest of India Week on Week Comparison Relative Impact Headroom Impact Rest of India is not different from Top 6 Metros. Genre W2 W3 W4 W2 W3 W3 News channels are on the rise, News -9.66% 8.61% 26.81% -1.47% 1.17% 3.99% followed by Movies. Movies 3.74% 1.75% 11.87% 0.83% 0.40% 2.81% Market volatility has led to increase Kids 4.26% 3.25% 14.04% 0.25% 0.20% 0.88% viewership of Business News Channels. Spot TV (Surewaves) 5.77% 6.63% 19.32% 0.18% 0.22% 0.69% Music -1.13% 0.63% 9.81% -0.05% 0.03% 0.45% Viewership of cable channels increased by 35% (Relative Impact) Infotainment & Lifestyle 7.06% 4.48% 4.13% 0.06% 0.04% 0.04% from Week 1 to Week 4. Business News 34.70% 11.75% 34.61% 0.02% 0.01% 0.03% Comedy 10.03% 0.85% -6.54% 0.08% 0.01% -0.06% Sports -2.92% -7.23% -7.04% -0.05% -0.13% -0.12% Entertainment -0.79% -2.79% -14.03% -0.81% -2.83% -13.43% # SYNC measures the viewership of 200+ local cable channels in Surewaves Spot TV network W1 is 2nd to 8th March 2020 and so on 9 News Top Impacted Channels Top 6 Metros Rest of India 34.81% News18 India 0.11% 0.66% Twenty Four 125.07% 0.72% 0.14% Sakshi TV 176.94% News Nation 35.26% 55.45% 0.15% V6 News 0.75% Mathrubhumi 132.71% News 23.32% 0.16% India TV 0.81% Manorama 111.39% News 51.65% 0.22% Kolkata TV 0.94% Asianet News 65.97% 31.91% 21.65% Zee News 0.98% Republic 0.23% Bharat 27.69% 26.49% ABP Ananda 1.56% Zee News 0.33% 57.31% 24.03% TV9 Telugu 1.56% Aaj Tak 0.35% 111.60% 42.91% Public TV 2.38% News18 India 0.37% 57.0% 39.51% 2.41% TV9 Kannada India TV 0.42% Relative Impact Headroom Impact Relative Impact Headroom Impact #Impact is calcualted basis Week 4 on Week 1 10 Movies Top Impacted Channels Top 6 Metros Rest of India 0.44% 0.13% Sony MAX 2 41.07% Asianet Movies 46.01% 0.62% 0.16% Zee Cinema 30.61% UTV Action 35.15% 0.64% 29.84% STAR Gold 2 38.12% B4U Kadak 0.18% 0.69% 34.76% &pictures 38.38% Sony MAX 2 0.19% 29.58% 34.49% Sony MAX 0.85% &pictures 0.29% 0.87% Colors Cineplex 34.11% 105.04% STAR Gold 2 0.32% 48.13% 31.47% STAR Gold 1.07% Zee Cinema 0.37% 29.18% 0.49% Zee Cinemalu 1.35% Colors Cineplex 0.64% 100.20% 24.43% 39.21% Star Suvarna 1.48% STAR Gold 0.62% 0.53% 43.87% Star Maa Movies 2.31% 37.17% Sony MAX 0.56% Relative Impact Headroom Impact Relative Impact Headroom Impact #Impact is calcualted basis Week 4 on Week 1 11 Kids Top Impacted Channels Top 6 Metros Rest of India 29.32% 0.15% Sony YAY 0.28% Nick Junior 43.60% 0.34% 0.16% Nick Junior 101.05% Kochu TV 89.03% 0.47% 30.73% Discovery Kids 86.54% Hungama 0.25% 37.65% Sonic 48.86% Hungama 0.49% 0.25% Nickelodeon 50.87% 73.05% Pogo TV 0.49% Discovery Kids 0.27% 0.54% Chutti TV 46.18% 132.39% Sony YAY 0.28% Sonic 77.08% 58.72% 0.59% Nickelodeon Disney Channel 0.28% 88.42% 50.32% Disney Channel 0.64% 0.74% Pogo TV 0.64% 0.30% 73.23% 47.77% Cartoon Network 0.62% 0.75% Cartoon Network 0.62% 0.31% 59.16% 28.92% Nickelodeon 0.80% Nickelodeon 0.31% Relative Impact Headroom Impact Relative Impact Headroom Impact #Impact is calcualted basis Week 4 on Week 1 12 Music Top Impacted Channels Top 6 Metros Rest of India 0.11% 15.77% Whistle TV 29.58% 9X Tashan 0.02% 0.12% 31.76% Murasu TV 17.1% 9XM 0.03% 0.19% 35.00% MTV Beats 21.33% B4U Music 0.033% 16.44% 0.04% Gemini life 0.20% Zee ETC Bollywood 62.55% 26.75% 17.11% Zing 0.04% Gemini Music 0.31% -11.77% 0.06% Music India 140.69% -0.31% Sun Music -0.14% 26.33% MTV Beats 0.06% -52.59% iLove Pen Studios -0.12% 15.00% Shemaroo Marathibana -57.41% Sun Music HD 0.10% -6.50% -0.09% iLove Pen Studios -0.12% Star Maa Music -56.90% -0.11% -17.32% Zoom -34.00% Aaho Music -0.03% Relative Impact Headroom Impact Relative Impact Headroom Impact #Impact is calcualted basis Week 4 on Week 1 13 Infotainment & Lifestyle Top Impacted Channels Top 6 Metros Rest of India 0.01% Discovery HD World 79.97% FYI TV18 22.18% 0.03% 19.0% Sony BBC Earth 80.37% Travelxp SD 0.01% 0.03% 0.01% National History TV 18 24.87% 24.00% 0.05% Geographic HD 0.01% National Geographic NDTV 70.79% 31.00% 0.06% Good Times 0.01% Kasthuri TV 0.07% Discovery 140.49% 33.38% HD World FYI TV18 126.90% 18.30% 0.09% History TV 18 0.02% 33.02% Animal Planet 76.94% National