The Hindu Business Line : Print medium reach rises to 200 m

THE reach of the print medium (dailies and magazines combined) has increased from 179 million to 200 million people in the last three years, according to the National Readership Survey 2005.

Though the reach has fallen in urban India - from 48 per cent to 46 per cent - it has been made up for by the rural area, where the reach of dailies and magazines increased from 17 per cent to 19 per cent on a larger population base.

The number of readers in rural India now almost equals that in urban India, with rising literacy rates, according to the survey released here on Wednesday.

According to the survey, the growth of supplements has resulted in the decline in reader base for magazines in both urban and rural India.

The reach of magazines has declined from 86 million in 2002 to 69 million in 2005. Magazines have lost 19 per cent of their reach since 2002.

While dailies have driven the growth for the print medium (rising from 23 per cent to 24 per cent) magazines have declined in reach, from 13 per cent to 10 per cent. The reader base for dailies, in fact, has increased from 155 million in 2002 to 176 million this year - a rise of nearly 14 per cent.

The time spent on reading has also gone up significantly - from 30 minutes to 39 minutes a day over the last three years. The increase is sharp both in urban India (from 32 to 42 minutes) and in rural India (from 27 to 35 minutes).

The most widely read daily is Dainik Jagran. Its nearest competitor Dainik Bhaskar has also grown. This is due to the fact that literacy levels have been going up in UP, Bihar and Jharkhand (the strong Dainik Jagran markets), the survey says.

Satellite TV too has grown exponentially in reach from 134 million viewers a week in 2002 to 190 million.

Homes with access to C&S has jumped from 40 million in 2002 to 61 million. This growth figure of 53 per cent is far higher than the growth of the TV market.

C&S subscription has now penetrated 56 per cent of all homes with TV.

But the number of homes with colour TV has grown from 29 million to 58 million. This 43-per cent rise is in tune with the growth in C&S. While in 2002, a little over half the C&S homes had colour TV, today more than two-thirds have the same.

Television now reaches 108 million Indian homes - a growth of 32 per cent since 2002.

Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh dominate in terms of TV reach at 77 per cent, 68 per cent and 74 per cent respectively. These States also have a high penetration of C&S at 55 per cent, 44 per cent and 55 per cent respectively.

Meanwhile, the reach of radio has stagnated with 23 per cent of the population listening to any station in a week. However, it has improved its performance in urban India, primarily due to FM.

In rural India, the reach of radio has dropped from 25 per cent to 23 per cent in the past three years.

The number of Internet users above the age of 12 has increased to 11 million. About 34 per cent users now surf from their homes and 32 per cent from a cyber-cafe. Only 16 per cent of Internet users access it from their work place.

Mobile phones have also emerged as a new medium. About 13.9 per cent access value-added features such as downloads and this figure is higher at 24.7 per cent in the metros.

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