As per Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) data for urban NCCS ABC audiences aged 15-50, the company’s Hindi GEC Colors has grown its evening prime-time market share from about 20% in week 27 to 27% in week 49.
Meanwhile, Colors Kannada has lifted its viewership share from 27% in week 27 to a whopping 37.2% in week 49 to become the top Kannada GEC.
Both Colors and Colors Kannada compete with channels run by Disney Star, Zee Entertainment, Sony Pictures Networks India and Sun TV Networks.
Kevin Vaz, chief executive of Viacom18’s TV business, said the company’s strategy of catering to an entire family by offering a mix of fiction and non-fiction content has played a major role in growing viewership.
Fiction shows primarily attract female audiences, while non-fiction shows like Bigg Boss cut across age and gender.”Revenue share will grow automatically as viewership share increases. However, there is a time lag in monetising that viewership growth,” Vaz told ET.He said both Colors and Colors Kannada are onboarding new advertisers even as existing advertisers are boosting their spending on the two channels encouraged by viewership growth.
According to a Pitch Madison report, total TV and digital video ad spends in India stood at ₹31,000 crore and ₹10,000 crore, respectively, in 2022. Viacom18 recorded a net profit of ₹11 crore on revenue of ₹4,554 crore in FY23.
Having turned around its operations in the Hindi and Kannada markets, Vaz said the network will sharpen focus on the Marathi and Bengali markets through greater investments in producing content in these markets.
Viacom18 owns and operates Colors Marathi, Colors Bangla, and Colors Bangla Cinema channels in these two markets.
Viacom18, Vaz said, will start selling ad inventory across TV and digital screens to exploit growing content consumption on both platforms, as both Colors and JioCinema, which is the company’s video streaming platform, have huge reach.
The company sold TV and digital ad inventory together for its biggest non-fiction show, Bigg Boss 17, and has seen strong double-digit ad revenue growth from the integrated approach.
According to Vaz, Viacom18 is the only network in the country catering to all key viewership segments like male, female, youth, and kids. While Colors Hindi and regional variants are meant for the entire family, MTV, and Nickelodeon are targeted at youth and kid’s audiences, respectively.
Viacom18, he said, is working on a new movie slate for its motion picture business, Viacom18 Studios, which had three of its releases, Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, OMG 2, and Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One, cross Rs 100 crore in net box office collection in 2023.
