The annual
budget presented by the Indian finance minister every year on
the 28th of February is known to rake in incremental revenues
for news channels. The primary reason for this is also that viewerships
are known to increase in this period. News channels get in new
programs and create special content as a run up to the budget.
Panel discussions, analysis, special sections within bulletins
are just some of the new formats that attract viewers.
An analysis of the viewership trends shows a quick build-up in
terms of viewership. Figure 1 plots channel shares for news channels,
which goes up from 2.5 per cent to 6.5 per cent in a matter of
a month!
Figure 1:
So
why does the channel share increase? More people tuning in… or
same audiences spending more time on news channels? Surprisingly,
its both of these changes taking place in viewerships that explain
the surge in channel shares as shown in Figure 2 below.
Figure
2:
Now
for the most critical question from a news channel perspective…
What happens to revenues? Does that increase or is it largely
unchanged? Revenue Index plotted on the TAM TV ADEX data shows
a gradual increase in revenues from somewhere from four weeks
prior to the budgets right until the Budget week itself. In fact,
the revenue increase seems to be to the tune of 23 per cent to
28 per cent as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3:
This clearly
establishes the Budget season as an opportunity for news channels
to get additional revenues. It also points to the fact that the
budget specials that news channels bring out have viewers as well
as advertisers biting into it! The S-Group will continue to bring
you more papers on the same. Watch this space for more!
Atul
Phadnis, director, S-Group, TAM Media Research
Sources used: TAM Peoplemeter viewership
data & TAM TV ADEX
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