Following Rollout of New Trai Tariff Regime, Hindi GEC Channels Viewership Underwent Massive Change

In the effects following the rollout of the new regulatory framework from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), we have seen lots of parameters change like pricing of channels, monthly subscription bills, and even viewership. While nobody expected the viewership to take hit by large margins for some channels, it has undoubtedly happened. Many big broadcasters like Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL), Star India, Viacom18 and Sony Pictures have withdrawn their channels from Doordarshan’s FreeDish platform even though they enjoyed substantial viewership over there. However, this move of the broadcasters has led to other channels taking the limelight of these channels and enjoying increased viewership.

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Dangan TV and Big Magic Enjoy Increased Viewership

Going by the words of an Edelweiss report, since a lot of the previously popular channels like  Zee Anmol, Sony Pal, Star Utsav and Star Bharat have stopped broadcasting on the platform, lesser-known channels like Dangal TV and Big Magic have seen a massive rise in their viewership. This rise in viewership has been as much as two to three times on an average in the Hindi GEC rural segment. The report highlighted that the cumulative share of the Hindi GEC channels (rural) for first to the fifth week was around 79% across seven channels, whereas in the 14th-17th week, this had decreased to 59% across three channels. This news was reported by Financial Express.

The report also showed the numbers which made the picture pretty clear about the viewership of these channels. After the new Trai tariff regime, Dangal TV, which is a channel owned by Enterr10, was boasting a viewership of 21% (which was 8% before the tariff order), and ZEEL’s Big Magic around 15% in the Hindi GEC segment. On the other hand, Star Bharat’s viewership share had declined to 6% while Sony Pal’s to 2.5% after the rollout of the new framework. In the 14th – 17th week, Zee Anmol and Colors Rishtey did not even feature in the top ten channels list.