NEW DELHI: For the first time in COVID-19 period, ad FCT has seen a slump, as revealed in the fourth edition of the BARC-Nielsen report, which compares data from the post-COVID period in January on a weekly basis with the current numbers. Overall FCT dropped from 28 million seconds to 20 million seconds, a dip of 26 per cent, in week 14.

The slump was evident even after 72 per cent of the advertisers remaining active during the COVID-19 period.  

The drop has been observed across genres, with music taking the biggest hit of 58 per cent, followed by youth recording a dip of 52 per cent and movies and kids slumping by 43 per cent. 

The dip was constant across languages when it comes to GEC but EEC recorded a growth of 19 per cent. The biggest drop was noticed on Tamil GECs with a 52 per cent dip. Bangla GEC was next with 47 per cent drop in ad FCTs. 

In movies, English films remained the least impacted with a one per cent slump in ad FCTs. The highest drop of 58 per cent was noted in Punjabi movies, followed by Tamil movies (-57 per cent), and Punjabi movies (-54 per cent). 

Among the ad sectors, social ads have grown exponentially during COVID-19 period. Even essential products are showing signs of growth.