Ad volumes in May 2021 have witnessed a significant growth of 64% as compared to May 2020 and have remained at par with previous years, data released Thursday by Broadcast Audience Research Council India (BARC) revealed.

“2021 began on a high note for television Ad Volumes. Despite a marginal dip from April 2021 due to the ongoing pandemic. Moreover, television attracted over 60 percent of the total advertisers in May this year, indicating that advertisers continue to bank on the medium. With lockdown easing up and upcoming big events, we expect TV advertising to remain strong this year,” Aaditya Pathak, Head, Client Partnership & Revenue Function, BARC India, said on the release of the organisation’s latest THINK report for May 2021.

Advertising on GEC and Movies genre continued to grow as per BARC India’s latest TV ad volumes report. Ad volumes on both the genres outperformed the same period for the previous three years registering a growth of 74 per cent and  76 per cent if compared to May 2020, a statement released by BARC India said.

Owing to the increasing consumption of regional content, advertising on South Indian language GECs registered a staggering growth of 103 per cent while the rest of the regional GECs witnessed 53 per cent growth in May 2021 vs. May 2020. South Movies and Regional Movies channels witnessed 85 percent and 129 percent growth for the same period.

Out of the total of 2142 advertisers in May 2021, 1347 (63 percent) were new advertisers. FMCG category continued to dominate ad volumes with 72 percent share, followed by ecom with 10 percent share in May 2021.

While over 70 percent of the advertising was dominated by the top 50 advertisers in May 2021, the top 10 advertisers had the highest share (54 percent) since 2018. Advertising by the top 10 advertisers continues to see steady growth.

Growth observed in ad volumes in the first quarter of 2021 has evidently seeped into the ongoing second quarter of the year, despite partial lockdowns implemented in various parts of the country. Moreover, the growth witnessed in May 2021 reinforces the strength and robustness of television as a medium.

BARC India is a statistical and measurement science company, which, it claims, is ‘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 Joint Industry Commission (JIC) that provides the authentic audience estimates of What India Watches, to broadcasters, advertisers and advertising agencies.  The Big Data driven insights generated by BARC India, is built upon a robust and future-ready technology backbone, which powers efficient media spends and content decisions in a highly dynamic and growing broadcasting sector.