The Hindu Business Line : Blackout makes Mumbaikars discover old-world charms

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Blackout makes Mumbaikars discover old-world charms

Shailesh Menon

Moved `couch potatoes' to mobility; for others, it was a trip to yore

There was a 63 per cent slide in TV viewing amongst `educated and employed upper class' Mumbaikars on Tuesday.

Mumbai , Aug. 24

Know what Mumbaikars did on Tuesday? Oodles of tacky fries, cozy pillows and kegs of drinks were missing from their living rooms and the `priceless' remote control lay orphaned with no takers.

Changed scenario

The cable TV blackout literally moved several `couch potato' Mumbaikars to mobility and probably for several others, it was a trip to yore, chatting over dinner, listening to the radio and sleeping early.

If the daily viewership ratings of television-rating agency aMap are to be believed, Mumbaikars spent only 51.6 minutes on Tuesday watching television. Generally, denizens of the city spent about 127 minutes on television every Tuesday.

"The blackout literally changed the TV-viewing habits of Mumbaikars, at least for one day. Viewership of various channels on Doordarshan, which on other Tuesdays enjoy an audience of not more than four per cent, shot up by nearly 623 per cent on the blackout day.

"This rise in the viewership of the national channel will plummet from today," said Mr Budhaditya Roy of aMap rating agency.

Viewing habits

On `black Tuesday', private viewing of television (using DVDs, VCDs and video cassettes) went up by 36 per cent among cable TV viewers.

There was a 63 per cent slide in TV viewing amongst `educated and employed upper class' Mumbaikars on Tuesday.

This group usually spends on an average 125 minutes watching TV. On Tuesday, this group watched TV only for 47 minutes. Private viewing in this segment shot up by 64 per cent.

"Mumbai has similar TV-viewing habits as that of the Hindi belt. General entertainment channels such as Zee TV, Sony Entertainment Television and Star TV account for nearly 20 per cent of the total television market share in Mumbai.

Shift in channels

"Hindi movie channels and local cable movie platforms enjoy 10 per cent market share whereas Hindi news channels enjoy a market share of around 10.9 per cent. English news channels account for only a meagre 2.5 per cent of the total television market share," said Mr Roy.

English movie channels such as the HBO, Star Movies and Zee MGM account for a market share lesser than 3 per cent.

"Now that movie channels are not telecast, audience falling under this segment might shift to music, sports or infotainment channels (Discovery, National Geographic Channel etc)," Mr Roy summed up.