TV ad volumes register double-digit spike in 2021: BARC

TV ad volumes witnessed a double-digit spike in 2021, indicating a strong bounce-back. According to the latest Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) report, TV ad volumes in 2021 were estimated at 1824 million seconds, up 22 per cent over that in 2020, and 18 per cent over that in 2019. The viewership rating body said growth came after 2020 turned out to a subdued year, despite the record stay-at-home rise in viewership.

Nearly 9,239 advertisers advertised on the medium in 2021, of which 49 per cent were new advertisers or those who had returned to TV advertising. Also 14,616 brands advertised on TV last year , of which 51 per cent (7,470) were new or returning brands. BARC said new advertisers and brands played an important role in the surge in growth of advertising volumes.

TV ads with an Average Commercial Duration of under 30 seconds were most favoured by advertisers, while spots of more than 60 seconds were the least preferred. “The Average Commercial Duration has been reducing Y-O-Y. The Prime-Time band, i.e., 20:00 hours to 24:00 hours enjoyed the maximum share of ad volumes at 27 per cent,” BARC said.

Aaditya Pathak, Head – Client Partnership & Revenue Function, BARC India said, “2021 certainly brought in much needed cheer to the broadcast industry. The year started off on a positive note and even ended on a high with the festive quarter. Year-on-year, despite pandemic impediments, television has repeatedly proved effective for every penny spent for advertisers and brands. 2021 saw over 9,000 advertisers turn to television, with a significant number of new entrants. Overall, 2021 was a positive year for the industry as a whole that witnessed growing value for both advertisers and broadcasters.”

The FMCG category had the leading share in TV ad volumes, followed by e-commerce and the Building, Industrial, & Land Materials/ Equipments segment. Television also continued to be an important medium for the corporate brand image category, which registered 2x growth over 2019 with 24 million seconds.

Regional language channels
While Hindi continues to play a dominant part of the language mix, regional language channels recorded strong growth as well across 2021. “Ad volumes for Bhojpuri language channels doubled over 2019, and Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati and Assamese language channels posted over 40 per cent growth over 2019. South language channels — Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada — grew by 26 per cent over 2020,” it added

Talking about the key sporting events, BARC said IPL 2021 registered a total of 1,680 thousand second ad volumes with 119 advertisers and 228 brands in all. “There were 59 new advertisers and 158 new brands for the season,” the report added.

Meanwhile, with 466 thousand seconds, ad volumes for the Tokyo Olympics were almost at par with the Rio Olympics that was held in 2016. There were 34 advertisers and 61 brands that advertised during Tokyo Olympics. Significantly, 31 per cent of the Ad Volumes during the Tokyo Olympics featured Olympians. The Hindu BusinessLine