In what could be an indication of some sort of economic revival in the country, the growth in TV ad volumes across Jan-Feb’21 further consolidated in March 2021 with 456 million seconds of ad volumes registering during the Jan-Mar 2021 period, the highest since 2018,

 across all genres, according to new data.

Ad volumes in the news and current affairs genre registered the highest growth with 25 per cent share, followed by GEC (21%) and movies (23%), according to Broadcast Audience Research Council India (BARC India) yesterday.

The growth of ad volumes on TV observed in Jan-Mar 2021 is broad-based, BARC observed, 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

ECOM sector continued to show a healthy growth of 13 per cent in January to March’21 compared with same period in 2020.

Digital-native brands under education (3x growth), pharma/health care (7x growth) and BFSI (55% growth) categories continued to propel growth of the ECOM sector in Jan- March 2021 vs. 2020.

Top 20 advertisers drove more than 50 per cent of the ad volumes during this period, according to BARC.

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

But kindly keep in mind this BARC data is for a period before the second wave of COVID-19 submerged India into chaos, resulting in sporadic lockdowns in places, which could impact the economy once again.