By ASHWIN PINTO
Indiantelevision.com Team

MUMBAI: The number of C&S homes has grown from 20 million in 1998 to 43 million in 2005.

The South has experienced the most C&S growth with the figure standing at 54 per cent. In the East and West it is 14 per cent while in the North it is 19 per cent. The South has a 47 per cent share in C&S homes. There are 15.3 million C&S homes in rural India. In Urban India there are 27.9 million homes. In Rural India, television penetration has grown from 18 per cent in 1998 to 28 per cent this year.

The Media Research Users Council (MRUC) and Hansa Research held a forum on the latest findings of the Indian Readership Survey (IRS). A presentation was made on television viewing in villages.

Aaj Tak, DD neck and neck on news front
In the news channel segment Aaj Tak and DD News are neck and neck with a 3.3 per cent share each all India. At the rural India level while Aaj Tak's share is 0.5 per cent DD News' share is 2.2. IRS also did a comparison between DD and mass Hindi C&S channels in rural India. DD has a share of 19.5 per cent followed by Star Plus at 6.9 per cent and Sony at 3 per cent. DD also tops in terms of genres watched. At the all India level any DD channel has a share of 20.7 per cent followed by 13.6 for regional C&S channels and 8.5 per cent for mass Hindi channels.

State wise in Kerala as per IRS Yesterday Vewing Data for January - December 2004 Asianet had a share of 29.3 per cent followed by Surya TV with 27.3 per cent and DD National with 25.2 per cent. In Karnataka Udaya TV leads with a 30.6 share followed by ETV Kannada with 18.6, Ushe with 13.3 and DD1 (National Network) with 13.5 per cent share.