Despite a suspension in ratings, news channels have shown the highest growth in ad volumes during the January-March period, the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) said on Friday.
Advertising volumes on Indian TV networks grew to 456 million seconds for the January-March period, the highest for any quarter since 2018, BARC said on Friday.
The Council had suspended its weekly ratings on news channel viewership after the cash for TRP controversy. The ratings are otherwise said to be one of the most important inputs used by brands to place ads with TV networks.
The growth in ad volumes on news channels came at 25 per cent, and was followed by 23 per cent jump in ad volumes for movie channels and 21 per cent jump in the general entertainment channels genre, data shared by BARC said.
The growth of ad volumes on TV observed in January-March 2021 is broad-based, with advertisers across the spectrum accounting for the higher levels, the agency said.
The top-10 advertisers and the next 40 registered a healthy growth at 37 per cent and 31 per cent, respectively, it added.
The e-commerce sector continued to show a healthy growth of 13 per cent in the reporting quarter, compared with the same period in 2020, it said.
Within e-commerce, education (3x growth), pharma/healthcare (7x Growth) and banking, financial services and insurance (55 per cent growth) continue to propel growth, it said.
Over 50 per cent of the overall ad volumes were driven by the top-20 advertisers during the reporting quarter, it said.
The agency said festivals and special events like Makar Sankranti and Republic Day in January garnered the highest-ever ad volumes since 2018, according to the statement.
