MEDIA STUDY REVEALS TV NUMBERS
Findings from the Indian Readership Survey
(IRS) '99 - conducted by ORG-Marg backed by the Media Research
Users' Council (MRUC)- were released last week in Mumbai.
The survey covers research fieldwork conducted between January-December
1998 over a sample of 212,872 individuals in 741 towns and
2,365 villages.
It has pointed out that the most read daily in both urban
and rural India is Hindi language publication Dainik Bhaskar
with a readership of 9.43 million. The next most read daily
is the Tamil language Daily Thanti with a readership of
9.25 million. The most read magazine is Hindi language Saras
Salil with a readership of 7.55 million followed by the
English edition of India Today with 5.95 million readers.
In urban India, however, it is The Times of India, which
follows the leader Dainik Bhaskar in the dailies sweepstakes,
with a readership of 4.85 million. India Today English leads
the magazine market in urban India with a readership of
5.03 million.
The survey has highlighted the rapid spread of the usage
of the Internet in India. It says that there are more than
a million users of the World Wide Web as against half the
figure in the previous year.
IRS' 99 has revealed that television reaches 46% of individuals
in both rural and urban India while press reaches 32.9%,
radio, 17.8% and cinema, 11.7%. The reach of television
in urban India, however, is much higher at 76.2%. Press
reaches 57.8% of urban households.
Television, the survey says, reaches 84.2% of all households
in 1 million plus population cities, 79.9% of all homes
in 0.5 million-1 million population cities, 77.2% of homes
in cities with populations of 100,000-0.5 million, and 65.9%
of all homes in towns with populations below 100,000.
DD 1 (the nationally-distributed terrestrial network) is
the most watched channel in India. It is viewed in 66.7%
urban homes and 31.6% rural homes giving an overall average
of 41.3%. DD Metro, as expected, is in the number two spot
with an overall average of 8.9%. Zee TV is at No 3 with
a 7.4% share of all audiences. Sony Entertainment is lagging
further than expected and is viewed in 5.9% homes. DD Marathi
follows with a share of 4.1%, while Star Plus has notched
up a healthy tally of 3.6% of all homes. However, a majority
of its viewers are in urban India with a share of 11.4%;
only 0.6% of rural Indians view the channels. The Telugu
channels Eenadu TV and Gemini TV follow next with a viewing
share of 3.4% and 3.2% respectively.
Org-Marg is expected to release further details of the TV
Baseline study findings in the next fortnight, throwing
light on how much cable & satellite television has spread
in the past year. The Indian Cab&Sat Reporter had earlier
reported on the findings of the TV Baseline study conducted
between December 1997 and June 1998 as part of the IRS in
the issues dated 19 October 1998 and 2 November 1998. At
that time, C&S television penetration was placed at 20.3
million.
