How TV platforms can keep the boat afloat in times of media fragmentation

Television is considered to be one of the most effective mediums for advertising owing to its massive reach and ability to give higher ROIs. But as of late, the media landscape seems to have begun changing as the audience behaviour today is more inclined towards digital nativism - be it on OTT, mobiles or even CTV.

Axis My India’s January 2023 survey on Consumer Sentiment Index highlights that the media consumption in India has increased for 21% of the people and that 52% of the people have increased digital media consumption in the previous year. In another survey done last year by Axis My India, it was revealed that the average time spent on digital is 105 minutes and TV is 66 minutes. 

Keeping the above in mind, along with industry developments like foraying of YouTube Shorts on TV, BestMediaInfo.com decided to delve deeper into the issue at hand and find out more as to what is impacting the time spent on TV in the current time and how it can be mitigated. 

Kumar Awanish

Speaking to BestMediaInfo.com, Kumar Awanish, Chief Growth Officer, Cheil India, shared that convenience viewing has impacted TV the most in the aftermath of the pandemic as audiences from that point in time started to branch out to newer avenues.

“This phenomenon was there earlier too, but it was only boosted by the pandemic as Covid created an opportunity for more production houses and TV network groups as well to come up with their digital solutions and technologies. As a result, what was the most impacted or hit by this was the TV industry in India,” he said.

Karan Taurani

Similarly, Karan Taurani, Senior Vice-President - Research Analyst (Media, Consumer Discretionary and Internet), Elara Capital, also said that TV consumption and viewership is getting impacted because of the ‘catch-up TV’ content phenomenon, as nowadays the relevance of ‘prime time’ is coming down which is why a lot of the audiences is catching up with the content on OTT platforms after it has been already showcased on TV.

He also went on to state that a lot of the modern audience is consuming a massive chunk of video OTT content across platforms- in the form of ‘Original’ content, web series, etc. in the current times as they are ‘spoilt for choice’.

Moreover, in his viewpoint, increased movie ‘catch-up’ is also happening on OTT platforms in the current times and has impacted the consumption of movie channels on TV.

Pravin Agrawal

Additionally, Pravin Agrawal, Senior Director-Media Planning, Carat India, also pointed out that when looking from a fragmentation perspective, TV viewership is not declining, but the time spent on TV has certainly taken a hit due to increased media fragmentation.

In his opinion, TV is also facing a renewed challenge of content in today’s day and age because with growing media fragmentation, ‘originals’ as content goes to OTT instead of TV, and that will certainly have an impact on TV in the times to come.

“If you relate to IPL or WPL broadcast auction, you will realise broadcasters or content creators are buying audiences by buying content, therefore, broadcasters are now following the audience for the content,” he stated.

Upon being questioned as to whether the incremental rise and penetration of short-form content is also posing a threat to time spent on TV, Cheil’s Avanish replied that the answer would be somewhere down the middle between yes and no.

“Yes, in the sense that people have started spending more time on short-form content on digital mediums in the current times owing to the reduced attention span of the audience which has led to an array of social media platforms releasing short format video verticals like YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, etc.,” he said.

Furthermore, he also went on to add that it’s a no in his opinion because a large chunk of the audience has today become ‘digital natives’ which is why the TV viewership has gone down.

On the contrary, Elara Capital’s Taurani noted that even though social media has obviously led to an increase in the audience’s time spent on mobile phones as a device for entertainment purposes as compared to television, this doesn’t pose a big impact on time spent on TV because social media content consumption happens mainly on-the-go or in-transit which mainly impacts the metrics for other mediums like radio and OOH.

“But when it comes to TV, it’s the rise of web series and OTTs that is having a much bigger impact. I think what’s happening for TV as a medium is that huge content has moved away from TV to OTTs on smartphones, CTV etc. in a very big way,” he opined.

Striking a similar tone, Carat’s Agrawal also pointed out that it would not be accurate to say that short-form video will take up a share of the TV viewership pie, as it can only supplement it.

He also went on to highlight that the majority of India is still stuck to being a single TV household, and therefore, any consumption on TV is primarily family-centric, whereas the short-form video is more individual and person-centric.

To further support his stand on the matter, Agrawal also stated that even when compared from a content perspective, TV serves different consumption purposes altogether, whereas short-form content video fulfils an entirely different one and that TV is higher on attentive reach, whereas the short-form video is casual scrolling in free time.

Moreover, Agrawal also said, “If media fragmentation is rising, reach, attention and relevance will certainly take a hit, but a decline in TV time spent cannot be attributed to a single platform or format.”

Commenting as to whether the trend of consumers shifting from TV screens to OTT screens is predominant only in the urban parts of the country, Elara Capital’s Taurani stated that both urban and rural audiences have reacted to the consumer shifts and trends in a similar fashion.

He further also pointed out that the OTT players have also begun moving away from just sticking to web series and movies and have started expanding into newer formats which is working in their favour as of now.

On the contrary, Carat’s Agrawal had a different viewpoint to share as in his belief this trend is predominantly an urban phenomenon which is prevalent in Tier-I cities and metros mainly.

But taking into consideration the impact of 5G rollout on the same, he stated that it will certainly elevate the user experience exponentially, but it comes at a cost and in his opinion, given the lower per capita income of Tier II and III markets as compared to the higher per capita of Tier I, this will continue to be an urban phenomenon for the near future as well.

On a similar note, Cheil’s Awanish also shared the view that when one looks at the quantum of watching time of short-form videos, then both rural and urban parts of the country will see the trend-related behaviour to be similar or 50-50.

“But when it comes to the creation of content, the Bharat audience would be seen generating more content than the urban ones,” he said.

Awanish further went on to add that Bharat has started dominating the content creation space to a massive extent - mainly because of Reliance Infocom’s ‘free’ and ‘low cost’ tariffs. Moreover, with the 5G rollout in play, the phenomenon of Bharat engaging with and creating short-form content will go full throttle in his views.

Suggesting some measures which can help the TV players get some respite and stay strong in the times of OTTs, Elara Capital’s Taurani emphasised that the industry would need to work very aggressively in terms of the content they cater to as TV as a medium cannot be as ‘interactive’ as the digital mediums.

“Currently, apart from news, sports is a very big value proposition for TV because it is something that is still viewed on TV and that too in very large numbers as both these genres are live in nature. But I think some kind of rejig in terms of content that TV offers or strategising of programmes which are youth-centric can help the medium set the way forward and recover the eyeballs that they’ve lost,” he said.

As per a recent joint report by industry body CII, KPMG and India Broadcasting Digital Foundation, the overall TV sports market is expected to touch Rs 9,830 crore and sports digital revenue will hit Rs 4,360 crore by FY26.

Carat’s Agrawal also went on to emphasise that the industry needs to understand that one cannot compare a particular medium with a particular content format because the short-form content format is present across the entire digital ecosystem, which is accessible to approximately 650 million digital audiences, whereas TV as of now reaches 892 million audiences on an average.

“TV doesn’t offer snackable content, and short-form video doesn’t offer long-form content, therefore, they can work together towards their strengths rather than supplement each other, and it would eventually be determined via content, which is apparently the king now,” he said.

He further also went on to suggest that if TV broadcasters can take a leaf or two from short-form content publishers and buy licences from them, it will ease their task and thereby enable an influx of fresh content which caters to a new audience whilst saving on high content acquisition costs because if such thing happens short-form content would be able to complement TV and its various genres in changing the audience preference.

“TV follows a fixed schedule or calendar which is why people tend to be available for appointment viewing, whereas on short-form there is no such bottleneck and it’s served as anything and everything under the sun and the background algorithm are designed in such a manner that platforms would themselves serve you content stating- ‘you might like this’, eventually making us get hooked on to the platform. But on TV, if the purpose is fulfilled, you change the channel or switch to another medium altogether,” he said on a concluding note.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com