TAM ratings for the Indian Premier League (IPL) Season 2 for the all India market from April 26 to May 2, 2009 show that the television ratings for digital continue to be more than the analog ratings. While the average rating in the C&S category is 4.08 TVR, that of digital is 5.5 TVR. Nevertheless, comparing it with last week’s data, the ratings have shown a dip, where in the all India market, April 18-25, 2009 digital had shown a TVR of 5.92, while TVR of analog stood at 4.61.
So, has DTH or Digital TV finally come of age; do the high ratings matter to advertisers? exchange4media finds out from industry experts.
Harish Shriyan, Managing Partner, OMD, observed, “The digital ratings are very important to advertisers and, therefore, any high ratings that we are getting is anyways a bonus and this is a premium audience, and if one is able to do well in DTH homes, it is good for advertisers in many ways. These are nevertheless only initial ratings and are bound to grow as the tournament progresses, but at the same time the ratings are certainly low as compared to last year because of various factors, one reason being the matches not happening in India, and secondly, a TVR of 4.5 or 5.5 in the initial stages is not at all bad and is a decent rating to begin with.”
He continued, “The other important factor for low ratings this year is because of the change in timings. Last year, most of the matches were played at 8 pm, which did increase viewership. The 4 pm matches were played mainly on weekends, whereas now almost everyday there are matches at 4 pm and 8 pm, therefore, taking the average ratings down.”
Rajneesh Chaturvedi, National Director, MEC Access, said, “Digital has not come of age for sure and still has a long distance to cover, nevertheless the DTH households are normally a TG of quite a number of products. The likelihood of DTH viewer being a TG is slightly more as compared to a normal C&S viewer.”
Manas Mishra, Country Head, Mudra Connext, explained, “Advertisers are not looking at digital viewers separately because there is no separate addressability as of now, therefore, one cannot advertise specifically for the digital viewers. The IPL ratings are lower than last year and one reason I believe is that it is out of the country and thus, there is a lack of local flavour, therefore, we have to wait and watch if the ratings go up as the tournament progresses.”