Multi-set TV homes pose new challenge for media planning

Jasmin Sohrabji
The question clients most often ask a media planner in India has to be "why are some markets in Hindi-speaking north India consistently lower in reach or GRP delivery compared to the national average?"

While a relatively small seven per cent of TV homes overall have more than one TV set, the number looks much healthier as we move up the socio-economic class (SEC), as well as in key Hindi-speaking northern markets. At a national level, 16 per cent of SEC-A homes have more than one TV set. In markets like Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, almost 30 per cent of SEC-A homes are multi-set homes (and 18-20 per cent of SEC-B homes are also impacted).

Is our overall picture of ratings and viewership distorted by ignoring this growing multi-TV set trend? Thus far, TV optimisation software in India has taken into account channel, day-part, genre mix and, more recently, intensity of viewing. We hypothesised that TV optimisation would be complete once it incorporated the new and growing dimension of TV viewing: viewing on the second television set. The profile, penetration and viewership of multi-set homes, we identified the extent of under-delivery of TV plans in these homes and took the necessary steps to re-optimise our plans.

Typically, the drop in reach/GRPs ranged from 65 to 80 per cent. At the micro-level analysis, we got some interesting findings. For men, sports and news programming is nonnegotiable. These genres feature highest on the main channel. For men, high on the second set are special content and kids' programming, as well as the English-language movie channels.

In Delhi, for example, almost 90 per cent of Discovery Travel & Living viewing takes place on the second TV set. Within the more established general entertainment genre (such as Star Plus and Sony), it's clear the second TV set is where viewers experiment or sample newer, less established but promising shows.

Profiling these homes and viewers revealed a high skew of 20 to 34 year-old viewers. The multi-set homes also have an 86 per cent higher ownership of durables, such as microwave ovens, automobiles, cell phones, etc. As multi-set homes were experiencing lower reach and GRP levels, and these viewers were young and affluent, TV planning optimisation needs to take into consideration this additional dimension.

Running a second level of optimisation and revisiting the channel/genre mix was needed to rectify the under-delivery of reach, GRPs and frequency. The revised plans showed a GRP drop of just 12 per cent among multi-TV audiences, as against the earlier 25 to 30 per cent drops. The brand in question recorded an eight per cent increase in overall awareness. Clearly, when we plan for TV, there is significant room for further optimisation to ensure a more equitable spread of reach, among both single and multiset homes.

Jasmin Sohrabji is president of MediaCom South Asia.