HUL regains top spot, Star reigns among GECs: Elara Capital
Zee Network also made significant MoM gains in the regional markets, according to the investment banking firm's monthly update of Global Markets Research
Hindustan Unilever (HUL) regained its top spot after four consecutive months of underperformance, despite losing 243bp MoM viewership in July 2021 to 33.4% share, according to Elara Capital's monthly update of its Global Markets Research. Reckitt Benkiser slipped back to the second spot with 26.5% share, down 148bp MoM.
Among the top channels, pan-India, STAR Plus stood at the top with 13.7% share, down 47bp MoM, followed by Sun TV, which remained second with 13% viewership share, down 43bp MoM. STAR Maa, Sony SAB and STAR Utsav stood third, fourth and fifth respectively – 90bp gains MoM for Star Maa; 103bp/128bp MoM viewership loss for Sony SAB/STAR Utsav respectively. Pan-India, the STAR group continued to lead the broadcasters, with group level viewership share at 44.6%, up 210bp MoM, largely led by STAR Vijay gaining viewership 295bp MoM in July.
West India – STAR dominates; Zee Anmol gains in Rajasthan
Among the key markets in West India – Maharashtra/Goa, Gujarat impressions grew 1% and 7% MoM respectively, while Rajasthan impressions dipped 13% MoM in July.
For Maharashtra and Goa regions, performance was led by STAR Pravah, which gained 250bp MoM to retain the top spot at 39.3% share, followed by Zee Marathi at 18.6%, down 100bp MoM.
Sony SAB and Colors Marathi stood third and fourth, at 17.2% and 12.3%, respectively. Gujarat too witnessed a stable performance by the top two players – STAR Plus and Sony SAB – with a slight 42bp viewership dip for Sony SAB.
However, Colors jumped to the third spot, gaining 730bp MoM, surpassing Sony Pal/STAR Utsav that stood fourth/fifth, with 12.8%/13% share, respectively.
In Rajasthan, STAR Utsav continued to lead despite a viewership loss of 370bp MoM to 28.8% share, which was followed by Zee Anmol, which gained 222bp MoM to 19.4%, thus narrowing down the gap. Sony Pal stood third with 18.2% share, up 122bp MoM. STAR Plus gained 564bp MoM, offsetting the loss for STAR Utsav completely, to enable group level gains of 190bp MoM.
South: SUN TV struggles in Tamil Nadu; Zee Kannada leads in Karnataka
Among the key markets in South India – Andhra Pradesh/Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu/Pondicherry, impressions grew 8%, 5%, 11% and 16% respectively, in July.
The Tamil Nadu/Pondicherry market (Tamil genre) was dominated by SUNTV, with 38.5% share, down 268bp MoM, followed by STAR Vijay and Zee Tamil that gained 330bp and 508bp MoM, respectively, to come in second and third. Andhra Pradesh/Telangana (Telugu Genre) performance was led by STAR Maa and Zee Telugu, with the top two spots gleaning 35.3% and 25.3% viewership share, up 140bp MoM and down 35bp MoM, respectively. ETV Telugu and Gemini TV stood third and fourth, with 70bp MoM loss and 50bp MoM gains, respectively. In Karnataka (Kannada genre), Zee continued to dominate with 34.6% viewership share, extending the lead by 330bp MoM, while Colors remained second with 248bp MoM gains at 22.6% share. STAR Suvarna, Udaya TV and Udaya Movies gleaned 17.3%, 15% and 10.5% share, respectively. Kerala (Malayalam genre) was solely led by Asianet with 49.3% share, posting stellar 915bp MoM gains in July.
