Indiantelevision.com Team

(2 September 2009 8:35 pm)

MUMBAI: While English remains the preferred language for newspapers, television programmes watched are more in regional languages in India, reveals the newly launched survey by the Nielsen Company.

The Nielsen Upper Middle and Rich (UMAR) survey looks at detailing mass and emerging media consumption, and the lifestyle habits of the affluent in Indian society.
According to Nielsen, the survey covered more than 18,250 individuals across 35 Indian metros and identified three segments of affluence from lifestyle and consumer durables mapping - Upper Middle, Upper-Upper Middle and Rich. The grouping was done based on the ownership of a car, a computer, an LCD television, and enjoying a holiday abroad.

As per the survey, 98 per cent of the individuals watch TV while 70 per cent read English dailies. It also states that 67 per cent watch movies outside home; 55 per cent use the internet; 54 per cent listen to the radio; while 38 per cent and 10 per cent read magazines and English business dailies, respectively.

The Nielsen Company MD South Asia Partha Rakshit, "The primary reason for conducting Nielsen UMAR was to obtain first of all a realistic estimate of this segment, and secondly, to profile their media and consumption habits. There is no study today in India which provides an accurate estimate of this target group; large scale surveys like the NRS and IRS grossly underestimate this segment as their sampling procedures are directed towards a mass audience and not specifically to this segment."

The survey ranks Delhi, Bengaluru, Greater Mumbai and Chennai as the most affluent cities in India, followed by Hyderabad, Kolkata, Kochi, Pune, Jaipur and Ahmedabad, respectively.