BARC India that recently launched the Out of Home (OOH) Viewership measurement has come out with some interesting television viewing trends.

In the April-May period, of the total TV viewership coming from Out of Home, Sports accounted for 70% of viewership. This was followed by Movies with 10% and Music with 8% viewership. The trend is in line with the fact that these were sports heavy weeks and thus saw many restaurants/pubs/lounges showcasing channels that were airing the matches. Data also shows that the viewership for Sports genre was driven by channels on which IPL was aired.

BARC’s OOH measurement tracks viewing of individuals who are aged 15 years and above across 900+ establishments in Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore, using 1500+ meters. A total of 44 million people, in this TG, viewed TV in pubs/lounges/restaurants, etc., in the three cities during April-May. Of this, 33.3 million viewers watched Live IPL matches. 

Live telecast of the just concluded Indian Premiere League garnered 23.7 million Impressions from OOH Viewing. An increment of 8% over the viewership generated from TV homes in these markets, in the 15+ TG.  

BARC India leveraged its Audio Watermarking technology and proven measurement capabilities to expand TV viewership measurement to OOH. This pre-subscribed service is a game changer for the industry as it uncovers a significant share of TV viewership which wasn’t being measured until now. 

“Our aim is to measure different screens and pipes and OOH is an extension of that commitment. There is a large population that consumes content on TV which is outside the bounds of home. We realised that it was important to capture those viewers as well. Before we launched rural viewership, there was blind targeting. But, inclusion of rural TV viewership helped advertisers uncover the potential of these areas. We are hoping that OOH viewership will help give better insights to advertisers and provide new opportunities,” said Partho Dasgupta, CEO, BARC India. 

BARC India is a joint industry company founded by three stakeholder bodies that represent Broadcasters, Advertisers and Advertising & Media Agencies. It owns and manages a transparent, accurate, representative and inclusive TV audience measurement system for India, which is also the largest of its kind in the world. BARC India started its all-India measurement with a sample of 10,000 homes which is currently being raised to 40,000. It is also in the process of tying up with multiple leading distribution platforms to use Return Path Data (RPD) to expand its sample upwards of 200,000.

BARC India’s TV viewership data services and insights products like BIO News and BIO AdVision are aimed at helping industry make sharper data-driven decisions. It is also gearing up to launch EKAM - an independent third-party Digital measurement service, with the goal of providing industry with unified measurement across TV and digital. BARC India’s data processing capabilities are built upon a robust and future-ready technology backbone. Winner of numerous awards for its technology, innovation and Human Resource practices, the company has grown substantially since its inception.