India’s total number of TV households stood at 210 million as of March 2020, signifying a 6.9% increase from 197 mullion in 2018. Simultaneously, TV viewing individuals also witnessed an increase of 6.7%, reaching 892 million from 836 million in 2018, an increase of 57 million individuals, according to new data released by Broadcast Audience Research Council India (BARC India).

BARC India, along with the BARC Technical Committee (TechComm), on Thursday announced 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 (all figures are as of March 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 million in 2018 to 91 million, while rural markets have grown by 9%, up from 108.9 million to 119.2 million in 2020.  While TV households across India grew by 6.9%, Hindi-speaking market (HSM) grew by 8% outpacing all-India as well as the South Indian states that 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.

NCCS, or the New Consumer Classification System, is a household classification system developed by MRSI and MRUC and used by BARC India for household classifications. It is based on two variables: education of the chief wage earner of a household and the number of consumer durables owned by the household from a pre-defined list.

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 million TV households and an opportunity for another 90 million 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 on to Lulla’s thoughts , 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, according to a statement from BARC India, developed by computing the linear growth of TV HHs and TV individuals from Broadcast India (BI) studies conducted in 2016 and 2018 at geographic and demographic levels.

The last update of TV UEs was done in 2018 after the establishment study known as Broadcast India (BI) 2018. While there were plans to conduct BI 2019 and BI 2020 surveys, at the advice of the industry, BI 2019 was not conducted due to the new TRAI-mandated tariff regime, and, subsequently, due to COVID-induced nationwide lockdowns, fieldwork could not be conducted for BI 2020.

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 be released on April 16, 2021. The updated estimates will reflect BARC India subscribers in the YUMI Analytics platform with immediate effect.

A large-scale establishment survey as a part of Broadcast India (BI) 2021 is also currently underway.

BARC India is a statistical and measurement science company, which is claimed to be ‘of the industry, by the industry and for the industry’.

The company is registered with the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) as a self-regulated, not-for-profit organisation that provides audience estimates of What India Watches to broadcasters, advertisers and advertising agencies. BARC shareholders include the IBF, AAAI and ASI.

Commencing operations in 2015, today BARC India manages the world’s largest and most diverse TV measurement system covering approximately187,000 individuals in 44,000 households in 513 districts covering over 600 towns and 1,300 villages across India.

 (All charts courtesy BARC India)