(17 April 2006 10:00 pm)

MUMBAI: That everyone watches television at home is a given, but a study done by IMRB for Madison Media, has revealed that a whopping 18 per cent of audiences watch television 'Out Of Own Home' (OOOH).

The study was conducted in the cities of Mumbai and Delhi to understand the impact of television viewing out of home. The research was conducted with 720 individuals in the SEC ABC category over 15 years of age in cable and satellite homes in Mumbai and Delhi.

The study showed that 75 per cent of OOOH viewing came from Mumbai and the rest from Delhi. In terms of gender skews, 35 per cent of women watch television in OOOH situations in Mumbai while for Delhi, the figure stood at a meager three per cent.

The SEC skews across the two cities is distinct wherein, the lower SEC contributes to the bulk of the OOOH viewing in Mumbai, while in Delhi it is the upper SEC. The study also showed that unlike conventional belief, workplace viewing is dominated by the private sector contributing to 80 per cent of the total OOOH viewing.

In terms of the content that is being watched OOOH, at the genre level, sports especially cricket leads the pack followed by 'Breaking News' attracting half the OOOH viewership. This was followed by movies/songs. Interestingly, it was seen that the consumer is more interested in breaking news that will affect the country at large, more than local or international happenings.

Any News comprises: Breaking local news/major happening in the country (29 per cent), Breaking news/major happening in the country (20 per cent) and Breaking news/major international news/happening (17 per cent) Any Sports comprises: Cricket match (71 per cent), Tennis matches (25 per cent), Football / Soccer matches (9 per cent), Other sports / special events (excluding cricket, tennis, football/soccer (20 per cent)

At the channel level, depending on the kind of content shown, OOOH viewing can increase reach by as much as 21 per cent to as low as 1.4 per cent over and above at-home viewing. Sports channels garner the highest reach gains with 21 per cent followed by news channels at 12 per cent.

Another myth that was broken with the findings of this study is that unlike popular belief that OOOH viewing predominantly happens at work place or at pubs; it was found that most of OOOH actually happens at someone else’s home. This could be due to a gathering of friends or occasions where there is a common interest to view a programme.

Dwelling on the time when OOOH viewing happens, it was shown that depending on the day, OOOH viewers can add an average incremental reach of over 25 per cent on weekdays to about 8-13 per cent on weekends.

OOOH viewing can also be a boon for advertisers as it was found that the probability of a consumer watching an ad in the OOOH environment is 48 per cent stronger than when the same consumer is watching the programme at home. This could be due to the fact that viewers want to watch the content eagerly, hence don't zap ads. Another reason could be the loss of control over the remote.