By ASHWIN PINTO
Indiantelevision.com Team

Media Research Users Council (MRUC) and Hansa Research held a forum on Indian Readership Survey (IRS) Starcom MD Ravi Kiran made a presentation on the changing habits of consumers. He attempted to scratch the surface. Issues he addressed were - Has the market place changed? Has the consuming class changed? Has it
widened or narrowed? If so, what are the implications for marketers, media owners and planners?

Quoting data from Hansa Research he noted that any media reach for Urban areas is 89 per cent compared to 60 per cent in rural. The reach of TV in Urban India is 80 per cent. 54 per cent can be reached through Cable & Satellite (C&S) TV alone. In Rural India the penetration of c&s is 15 per cent. Non-C&S channels reach 29 per cent. V gets more fragmented - niche channels gain mass

In Urban India the print media has remained stagnant over the last 4-5 years. However, some language dailies register impressive growth that compensates the loss of readers of certain set of magazines. Radio has gathered some bit of mass, thanks to private FM
stations. Cinema loses overall patronage with reach drop from 38 per cent to 31 per cent since 1998. Awareness of Internet is up from 14 per cent to 23 per cent in last four years.

English language title readers have dropped by 67 lakhs since 1998. Magazines lose share. In terms of growth for dailies the North and South show the way. Kannada dailies have grown in penetration by 42 per cent. The consumption of Malayalam dailies have grown in Kerala by 30 per cent. By contrast Tamil dailies have grown by just two per cent since 1998. In Delhi, English dailies have grown by 99 per cent. The Hindi dailies have grown by 31 per cent. The Rural penetration growth for two wheelers is dramatically higher. In the refrigerator segment however it is Urban India that is driving growth.

For packaged goods Rural India has a 76 per cent share in hair oil goods. As far as all India is concerned the number of television households has grown from 55 mm in 1998 to 83 mm in 2005. The number of colour television sets has shot up from 131 lakhs in 1998 to 406 lakhs in 2005. More importantly is the fact that
two out of every three Television sets sold is happening in rural India.

One revealing statistic is that the number of homes earning between Rs. 10-40 lakhs has grown by 47 per cent since 1998. Rural India is also pumping iron. It is becoming more affluent. There has been a 32 per cent growth in the homes earning over Rs. 500,000. Full time employment has grown from 45 per cent in 1998 to 48 per cent in 2005. This reflects both rural and urban areas. The literacy level has also grown. 31 per cent more of housewives are more educated in terms of studying beyond the 5th standard.