‘Hindi GECs captured 24% share of total GEC ad volumes in H1'22’

The Hindi general entertainment channel (GEC) sub-genre's share of ad volumes in the overall GEC genre has registered 20% growth in January-June 2022 compared to the same period last year.

The Hindi GEC sub-genre captured 24% of the overall GEC ad volume pie in H1 2022 against 20% in H1 2021, as per TAM Media's half yearly report for 'Advertising in GEC Genre'. The GEC genre has five key sub-genres which include Hindi GEC, Tamil GEC, Telugu GEC, Malayalam GEC, Bengali GEC, and other languages GEC.

The ad volume share of the Tamil GEC sub-genre declined to 15% of the total GEC ad volumes compared to 17% a year ago. Telugu GEC sub-genre witnessed a growth in its ad volumes with a 12% share in H1'22 vs 11% in H1'21

The Malayalam GECs replaced Bengali GECs to become the fourth largest sub-genre by ad volumes. The ad volume share of Malayalam GECs remained unchanged at 10% while that of Bengali GECs shrank to 9% from 10% in H1'21.

The share of Others decreased to 30% from 33% in the previous year. TAM Media noted that the figures are based on s

.0econdages for TV and include commercial ads only.

For the period under review, the GEC category across languages witnessed a 50% indexed growth compared to H1’20 and a 3% growth compared to H1’21. The indexed ad volume for GEC grew from 100 in H1'20 to 146 in H1'21 and 150 in H1'22. The channel count increased from 150 in H1'20 to 155+ in H1'22.

The month of May had the highest ad volume share at 17.4% during H1'22 while February had the lowest share at 15.5%. The ad volume share was above 17% in January, March, and May.

According to the report, the GEC genre contributed 28% of the ad volume share of overall advertising across different genres. In H1'21 too, the ad volume share of the GEC genre stood at 28%. The ad volume share was 27% in H1'20. GEC continues to be the biggest advertising category within the TV ecosystem.

The count of advertisers in the GEC genre increased by 5% to 2015+ in H1'22 from 1960+ in H1’21. The count of brands in the GEC genre increased by 3% to 3900+ in H1’22 from 3795+ in H1’21. However, the count of categories dropped to 365+ in H1'22 from 385+ in H1'21.

The report said that the Food & Beverages sector topped with a 29% share of the GEC genre’s ad volumes followed by Personal Care/Personal Hygiene with a 20% share. All sectors except Services, Household Products and Personal Accessories retained their rankings in H1’22 compared to H1’21.

The top 10 categories added 36% share of the GEC genre’s ad volumes. Milk Beverages overtook Toilet Soaps to become the leading category on GEC. Further, 5 categories from F&B and 2 from Personal Care/Personal Hygiene sectors were present among the Top 10 list.

Based on the highest increase in ad volumes, 185+ categories registered positive growth. The Aerated Soft Drink saw the highest increase in ad secondages followed by Tea. In terms of growth among the Top 10 categories, Ecom-Wallets topped with the highest growth of 4.4 times.

HUL, Reckitt Benckiser, and Brooke Bond Lipton India remained in the Top 3 positions in the GEC genre during both H1’21 and H1'22 while Coca-Cola India and PepsiCo were the new entrants in the Top 10 list.

Around 580+ advertisers advertised exclusively in the GEC genre during the half-yearly period. JCB Industries was the top exclusive advertiser in the GEC genre followed by mangalammatrimony.com.

Among the 3900+ brands that advertised on the GECs, Horlicks was the top brand. Harpic Power Plus 10x Max Clean moved up to first place in H1’22, from 13th place in H1’21. The Top 10 Brands contributed a 10% share of GEC ad volumes.

The TAM report also highlighted that 960+ advertisers and 2,000+ brands exclusively advertised in the GEC genre during H1’22. These brands were present in H1'22 but not in H1'21. Tata Play and Lizol All In 1 were the top exclusive advertiser and brand respectively in H1'22.

Prime-Time (6 to 11 pm) was the most preferred time band in the GEC genre followed by Afternoon (12 to 3 pm) and Morning (9 am to 12 noon) time bands. Prime-Time, Afternoon and Morning time bands together added more than 70% share of ad volumes.

The <20-sec ads of the GEC genre had a 28% and 23% share of ad volumes in H1'22 and H1'21 respectively. Ad commercials of 20-40 seconds were most preferred for advertising on GECs during both periods. The volume share of 20-40 second ads dropped to 69% in H1'22 from 73% in H1'21.