MUMBAI: Media Research Users Council (MRUC) has raised questions over the recent findings brought out in the NRS 2005 survey, setting the ground for a divide in the industry on issues relating to the size of the television and cable and satellite (C&S) homes.

 
NRS '05 has pegged the total C&S homes at 61 million, indicating an increase of 16.3 million homes during the last two years. "This is nearly the same as new total TV homes and seems very inexplicable," MRUC says in a note to its clients. Interestingly, the total TV homes, according to NRS data, went up by 16.7 million homes during this period. NRS officials were not available for comment at the time of filing the report.

IRS, conducted by MRUC, estimates the total number of C&S homes to hover around 46-50 million by the end of 2005. "Surprisingly, the NRS '05 estimate is a million more than the overall installed TV base in India four years ago as compared to Census 2001," MRUC points out.

 
 
The C&S estimations have been impacted in NRS '05 as a result of an exaggeration in the size of households and TV households in some of the States, MRUC says.

NRS '05 has put the TV installed base at 108 million homes, indicating a 51 per cent penetration on a base of 213 million total estimated homes. MRUC and its research partner Hansa Research Group find this "a very large number to deal with" as it means 82 per cent more TV homes got added in the last four years (2001-2005).

 
 
The IRS '05 figures are much lower, putting the TV homes at 83 million (as of June 2004) and a penetration of 41 per cent. Growth in the last three years (2001-2004) was at 39 per cent. "Our figures represent a growth of about nine per cent in penetration over Census 2001," MRUC clarifies to its members. According to Census 2001 estimates, the TV households touched 59.4 million with a 32 per cent penetration.

Though NRS is yet to release recent figures, it estimates the total TV homes to reach 90-94 million by the end of 2005. NRS '05 has overestimated TV homes by 14-15 million, asserts MRUC.

MRUC points out Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Tamil Nadu and Uttranchal as states where projections are higher than expected in NRS '05. These account for 61 per cent of the total TV households base in NRS '05.