Soaring popularity
From watching ‘Ramayana’ and ‘Mahabharata’ epic shows on a bulky wooden-packed television box decades ago, to enjoying the Indian Premier League on sleek and smart TV screens, the television in India is a staple in most homes. However, the digital age has revolutionised television viewing habits of viewers and placed the country’s sizable television industry on the precipice of a new era, where pay TV makes way for connected TV and free TV consumption.
And, the Indian television industry is an interesting creative business that solely depends upon ‘television rating point’ (TRP data) released by Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), a joint industry body responsible for creating and managing a comprehensive system to measure television viewership and audience data for the country. BARC India collects and analyses data to understand how many people are watching which TV channels and programs. BARC uses a robust technology backbone and systems, including audio watermarking, to gather viewership data from a sample panel of households. The data collected by BARC is used to generate the TV ratings, which are crucial for advertisers to make informed decisions about where to invest their advertising budgets. The business impact of high TRP is significant, as it attracts advertisers, drives revenue for broadcasters and increases a show’s overall value and reach. TRP data released by BARC every week is thus an extremely important figure for every production house that creates television entertainment content in India, as the revenue collected from television advertisements across India in 2024 amounted to Rs29,400 crore.
There exists a cut-throat competition among television production houses to lure the audience and loyal viewership of Indian television shows, as the popularity of entertainment content stated by TRP figures every week, sets production budgets and decides pay cheques of the stakeholders like producers, directors, actors, technicians, etc. However, the sole TRP barometer to assess the popularity of TV shows every week in India now needs to be re-looked with a different perspective, according to many leaders of the Indian television industry.
Pressing issue
Rajesh Joshi, an eminent essayist and a well-known story-writer of Indian television industry’s popular show Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi (KSBKBT), says that nowadays a considerable chunk of the Indian audience prefers to watch TV shows on ‘over the top’ (OTT) platforms. A hit television show aired on Star Plus channel, like KSBKBT, also attracts millions of viewers on Hotstar – India’s largest premium streaming platform. Joshi feels that the popularity of a particular television show watched on OTT is not taken into account while releasing the TRP figures. This pressing issue needs to be addressed at the earliest.
As India’s digital entertainment appetite continues to grow, the OTT landscape is poised for even greater expansion. With a remarkable 750 million internet users consuming video and audio content in the country, the Indian OTT sector is projected to witness substantial growth in the coming years. The total revenue from advertising and subscriptions across OTT platforms in India reached about Rs38,000 crore last year, reflecting the booming demand for digital entertainment in the country.
Irrespective of the viewership on TV or OTT, the popularity and creativity of television shows continue to remain a single focal point for the producers and television channels to secure a larger slice of advertising revenues worth billions of rupees generated every year. “Television shows that offer a comfortable, familiar viewing experience, along with strong storytelling, compelling dialogues and also a sense of tradition tend to gain wide viewership appeal in India,” says Joshi, who is also the writer of Season 2 of KSBKBT, which has gained immense popularity on both, Star Plus and Hotstar post the show’s launch in July 2025. “KSBKBT, Season 1, enjoyed the TRP ratings in the bandwidth of 20-25 during 2000-08. This highly popular show completed its 1,833 episodes and generated huge advertising revenues then. Hence, a decision was taken by producer Ekta Kapoor to air 167 fresh episodes by launching the second season of this show after a span of 25 years”. The soaring TRP ratings of this show have attracted huge advertising revenues from the country’s leading brands like Tide+, Kalyan Jewellers, Maruti Suzuki, Fortune Soyabean Oil, Colgate, Smart Bazaar, etc.
Joshi believes that the advertising support given from well-known Indian companies to KSBKBT Season 2, based on consistently high TRP ratings, acknowledges the fact that the show’s content focuses primarily on family values, interactions, and emotional connects between millennials and Gen Z, and their rapport and relationships with the older generation of Indian society. These factors undoubtedly play a pivotal role in fetching huge advertising revenues for the shows aired on television and streamed on OTT platforms, as passionate audiences love plots that depict emotions and family values. “It was thus challenging for me to introduce old and new characters in the story of Season 2 of KSBKBT,” he adds.
Plenty of options
The trend indicates that a growing number of viewers prefer watching TV shows on their mobile devices or OTT platforms, unlike earlier days, when audiences had to wait for their favourite television shows to air at a specific time. “With numerous options available today, viewers can watch television content anytime, thanks to the popularity of OTT platforms,” remarks well-known television director Muzammil Desai. “This has eventually resulted in the lower weekly TRP numbers released by BARC for the TV shows. Perhaps, we should now focus on in-line TRPs too and eventually continue to gauge the popularity of television entertainment content produced and watched by the Indian audience”.
Desai also reiterates the fact that in the cut-throat TRP competitive scenario prevailing in the Indian television industry today, the commercial success of any television show solely depends on the quality of entertainment content. “The grand success of the second season of KSBKBT, launched by Balaji Telefilms, is a classic example of the reboot of a quality entertainment content television series focused on an old and hit story after a span of 20 years,” he says, adding: “When I first heard that KSBKBT is being revived, bringing back the magic to the TV industry, I was thrilled. As someone who assisted in the original show, I was eagerly waiting to be called to direct this new version. I knew it would be a huge responsibility. One day, I received a call from the production house confirming that I would be directing it. Initially, I was overjoyed, but when we had our first meeting with Ekta Kapoor, I saw her immense enthusiasm and excitement for the show. That day, I felt a bit tense, realising the weight of the responsibility. During the initial days of shooting, I barely slept due to the pressure of maintaining the show’s legacy, which is returning after 25 years.”
“I know times have changed and television has evolved,” observes Desai. “The audience is far more discerning now. If we replicate what we did in 2001, it won’t work today. However, after hearing Ekta Kapoor’s vision for this show, I believe bringing back KSBKBT after 25 years is not a risk, but a well-thought-out decision”.
His show’s commercial success, excellent TRP ratings and the advertising support from giants of the Indian corporate sector is a testimony of the fact that important issues depicted in the television entertainment content that are relevant to every household, such as the relationships between husband and wife, mother and daughter and mother-in-law, and daughter-in-law certainly becomes popular among Indian audience over a period of time, Desai feels. “This approach has worked well with KSBKBT, Season 2. Producer Ekta Kapoor was clear that she wouldn’t compromise on the show’s authenticity by incorporating fake drama solely to attract the TRP numbers”.
Actors of Indian TV shows often comment on the TRP numbers, which reflect their show’s popularity and their own career success, with higher numbers leading to greater viewer engagement and potential career growth. ‘TRP numbers of Indian television shows have become intrinsic and essential nowadays to seek the advertising support,’ says veteran Bollywood artist and senior actor Shakti Singh, who played the role of Mansukh Virani in Season 1 of KSBKBT. ‘Incidentally, the TRP numbers have gone through a sea change in the past 20 years’. Singh feels that a few episodes of KSBKBT, Season 1, charted the TRP of 47, as against the TRP 2 of the present-day edition of the same show. And, in today’s times, TRP 2 is truly considered excellent by all important stakeholders of the Indian television industry, including the corporate advertisers. “It’s high time that new, novel and fresh television entertainment content, which is not copied or repetitive, is presented before Indian viewers now, so that TRP numbers soar,” he adds.
BARC should revamp its TRP assessment methodology, as a vast majority of the Indian audience nowadays watches popular TV shows on OTT platforms, says television actor Amar Upadhyay. “Our ongoing KSBKBT, Season 2, is the No. 1 watched show on the Hotstar streaming platform currently. Unfortunately, the OTT viewership is not taken into account by BARC, while assessing the weekly TRP or popularity ratings of Indian television shows,” he adds.
“Indian audience is now used to watching technically sound entertainment content on OTT platforms,” affirms Khwaja Mughal, a talented director and also a creative personality associated with Balaji Telefilms for many years. “Any new TV show like KSBKBT, Season 2, made for today’s audience, has to be a powerful and high-quality product to sustain its TRP and OTT popularity.”
Also, there exists fierce competition nowadays between Indian streaming service providers and general entertainment satellite channels of India to lure advertising support worth billions of rupees every year. Experts believe that television entertainment content aired on Indian channels has become repetitive over a period of time.
“The influence and might of OTT platforms in India have indeed posed a huge challenge for the Indian television industry that depends a lot on corporate advertising,” says Dheeraj Sarna, an eminent producer and dialogue-writer. “TV entertainment content has become monotonous. A huge revamp in the stories, plots, ideas, etc, depicted in every TV show aired in our country is desired now”.
However, TRP figures released by BARC every week to rate the popularity of Indian TV shows are gradually losing relevance, say many observers. “In a country with over 300 million households, where more than 200 million homes have smart television sets, the TRPs are determined by the BARC meters installed in merely 50,000 homes,” comments Sanjay Shah, a well-known columnist, film critic and a senior entertainment sector journalist. “In the present OTT era, TRP ratings look laughable as in a country like India, with about 500 million OTT connections, TV content viewing often happens freely via OTT connections installed at residential and commercial premises and also at public places. So, TRP ratings make no difference to the Indian audience in the present circumstances”. Measuring OTT viewership should be made simpler in India, with less room for manipulation, Shah feels. Viewer preferences are far more fluid today. Measuring OTT viewership should be simpler, with less room for manipulation. “But that credibility will only come when streaming platforms in India stop guarding their numbers and release honest viewership figures,” he adds.
Fortunately, the reboot of KSBKBT has proved that the franchise’s 20-year-old brand, its popularity and the lingering interest of the audience in family values will continue to attract millions of viewers across the globe on streaming platforms and also score good TRP ratings in India. Season 2 of KSBKBT, aired on Star Plus Channel and streamed on Hotstar simultaneously, has triggered a huge debate in the television industry on assessing the popularity of any television show merely based on TRP numbers in an era where online viewing has gained immense acceptance. It is estimated that the advertising slots for the new iteration of KSBKBT are selling at Rs3.5-4.5 lakh per second and commanding a premium over many ongoing television shows aired across various general entertainment channels of India. It has also become a cash cow for veteran producer Ekta Kapoor’s BSE and NSE-listed entertainment production company, Balaji Telefilms Limited