NEW DELHI: The overall growth in television ad volumes during the first two months of the year has further consolidated in March, said Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) on Friday.

According to the television monitoring agency, 456 million seconds of ad volumes was recorded during the January to March period, the highest since 2018.

The latest data offers a glimmer of hope to the television industry which has been struggling to get back on its feet amid the second wave of Covid2019.

The growth in ad volume was observed across all genres. While the news genre recorded a growth of 25 per cent, the surge in the GEC space was 21 per cent. The movies genre saw an uptick of 23 per cent.

According to BARC, growth of ad Volumes on TV observed in Jan-Mar 2021 was broad-based, with advertisers across the spectrum accounting for the higher levels. The top 10 advertisers, as well as the next 40, registered healthy growth at 37 per cent and 31 per cent respectively.

E-commerce sector continued to show a healthy growth of 13 per cent in January to March 2021 compared with the same period in 2020.  

The digital-native brands under education (3X growth), pharma/health care (7X growth) and BFSI (55 per cent growth) categories also continued to propel growth of the ECOM sector in Jan to March 2021 compared to 2020. The top 20 advertisers drove more than 50 per cent of ad Volumes during this period, showed the data.

Festivals and special events like Sankranti and Republic Day in January garnered the highest ever ad volumes in 2021 since 2018, reported BARC.

With a promising start to the year, the expectations for higher ad spends have definitely gone up for the coming months.