The topline figures of the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2002 (round 10) were released on 29 April 2003. IRS 2002 is the largest continuous media survey ever conducted (sample size of 229,000 individuals) providing a single-source database for demographics, media habits and product / brand usage across 986 towns and 2858 villages in India. The survey was conducted over two rounds with the field work between November 2001 and November 2002.

This all-India survey conducted jointly by the Media Research Users' Council (MRUC) with its research partner NFO, also provides product / brand penetration information for over 50 different products allowing one to link media habits and product usage data for adults and children from the age of 12 years.

The key members of the IRS Technical Committee …
Dr. Ravi Moorthy (Starcom)
Partho Ghosh (Initiative Media)
Tapan Pal (Zenith)
PRP Nair (BBDO)
Srikanth Raman (Carat)

The field research for IRS 2002 was conducted by research agency NFO-MBL. Recently, media reports indicated that NFO-MBL would cease to be associated with the study after the release of the current round and Hansa Research group, the research wing of RK Swamy BBDO, will take over from Round 11. This was confirmed as true by Nabankur Gupta, chairman, MRUC while inaugurating the conclave.

Optimum Media Solutions executive vice president Amit Ray made a presentation on the topline findings of IRS 2002 on 29 April 2003. Here, we present some trends unearthed as part of the study.

Cable & Satellite scores over other media: Out of the total population (12 years plus) of 712.4 million (up 1.7 per cent from 2000); average issue readership of print media dropped to 158.3 million (down 1 per cent); terrestrial TV viewership dropped to 188.3 million (down 4.8 per cent) whereas C&S TV viewership registered a huge increase of 22.9 per cent to 181.7 million in 2002 as compared to 2000.

Any radio listenership dropped to 109.3 million (down 1.5 per cent) whereas FM radio listenership increased to 34.5 million (up 1280 per cent). FM Radio is 3.5 times bigger than the Internet. However, the number of people who were aware of the Internet increased to 127.9 million (up 56.9 per cent); and the number of people who accessed the net in within a one month period was 7.8 million (178.6 per cent).

IRS 2002 should serve as a wake-up call for the print media in particular. The usage of all other media to differing degrees saw upward trends. This would seem to suggest that ad spend patterns may well see significant changes going forward.

Television trends:
The total number of people who watch any TV increased to 369.9 million (up 7 per cent) and those who watch C&S channels increased to 181.7 million (up 22.9 per cent).

Top 10 C&S TV channels: Star Plus viewers increased to 55.9 million (up 22 per cent); Sony TV dropped to 39.1 million (down 43 per cent); Zee dropped to 33.3 million (down 43 per cent); Sun TV increased to 31.9 million (up 7 per cent); Eenadu increased to 31.9 million (up 10 per cent); Gemini increased to 31.7 million (up 21 per cent); Zee Cinema dropped to 25.1 million (down 36 per cent); Aaj Tak increased to 23.7 million; Udaya increased to 19 million (up 35 per cent) and Discovery increased to 17.7 million (up 8 per cent).

Top 10 C&S channels by genre: The gap between the channels ranked No 1 and No 2 in different genres varies but surprisingly, the lead of Star Plus over second placed Sony Entertainment is not to the extent that is generally assumed if the TRP ratings are used as a marker. Genrewise (excluding regional channels) the biggest difference in viewership and reach was seen in English news with Star News (pre-break with NDTV days) 73 per cent higher than BBC. This however, is not strictly a like-and-like comparison. In Hindi News, Aaj Tak is 58 per cent ahead of Zee News, which is actually the biggest "blue sky" spacing between a number one and two in any genre. The lead that Zee Cinema had over MAX was the same at 58 per cent.

* Hindi general entertainment - Star Plus viewership and reach is 30 per cent more than the second placed Sony TV.
* English general entertainment - Zee English viewership and reach is 56 per cent of Star World (which in effect means Star World has a 44 per cent lead over its rival).
* Hindi movies - Zee Cinema viewership and reach is 42 per cent more than the second placed MAX.
* English movies - Star Movies viewership and reach is 39 per cent more than the second placed HBO.
* Hindi News - Aaj Tak viewership and reach is 42 per cent more than the second placed Zee News
* English News - Star News viewership and reach is 27 per cent more than the second placed BBC.
* Nature/infotainment - Discovery viewership and reach is 40 per cent more than National Geographic channel.
* Sports - Star Sports viewership and reach is 36 per cent more than the second placed ESPN.
* Music - MTV viewership and reach is 36 per cent more than the second placed etc.

Language/vernacular channels:
Tamil - Sun TV viewership and reach is 65 per cent more than the second placed Jaya TV.
Telugu - Eenadu TV is running virtually neck-and-neck with Gemini TV, with only 1 per cent lead for the Ramoji Rao's channel.
Kannada - Udaya TV viewership and reach is 64 per cent more than the second placed ETV.
Malayalam - Asianet TV viewership and reach is 14 per cent more than the second placed Surya TV.
Punjabi - etc viewership and reach is 22 per cent more than the second placed Lashkara.
Bengali - ETV viewership and reach is 49 per cent more than the second placed Alpha.
Gujarati - Alpha viewership and reach is 42 per cent more than the second placed Gurjari

Viewership trends within different bouquets:
STAR NETWORK
Star Plus viewership increased to 55.9 million (up 22 per cent); Star Sports increased to 17.4 million (up 38 per cent); NGC increased to 10.7 million (up 65 per cent); Star Gold increased to 8.4 million; Star Movies dropped to 8.3 million (down 5 per cent); Star News increased to 7.7 million (up 24 per cent); Channel [V] dropped to 3.2 million (down 58 per cent); Star World increased to 1.8 million (up 13 per cent).

The only loser on the Star Network is [V], which puts a big question mark on just what were the benefits that flowed out of the huge splash that accompanied the launch of [V] Popstars in the first half of 2002.

ZEE NETWORK
Zee TV viewership dropped to 33.3 million (down 51 per cent); Zee Cinema dropped to 25.1 million (down 36 per cent); Zee News dropped to 10 million (down 5 per cent); etc increased to 4.8 million (up 17 per cent); Zee Music dropped to 3 million (down 49 per cent); Zee MGM increased to 2.3 million (up 53 per cent); Zee English increased to 1 million (up 66 per cent).

It is all bad news as far as Subhash Chandra's network is concerned with the notable exception of Zee English and Zee MGM. Another plus was the early 2002 Zee acquisition etc.

The Zee Group's Alpha regional channels, however, gave a much better account of themselves. Alpha Marathi increased to 7 million (up 3 per cent); Alpha Bengali increased to 2.6 million (up 1 per cent); Alpha Gujarati increased to 1.7 million (up 133 per cent); Alpha Punjabi increased to 1.5 million (up 22 per cent).

SONY NETWORK
The network's flagship channel SET's viewership dropped to 39.1 million (down 43 per cent); MAX increased to 14.5 million (up 7 per cent); Discovery increased to 17.7 million (up 8 per cent); AXN increased to 4.9 million (up 4 per cent); HBO increased to 5.1 million (up 292 per cent).

It is interesting to note that both Zee TV and SET showed big drops in their viewership. Ray raises the question of whether there is a link between the channels having gone pay and the drop in viewership.

SUN NETWORK
Sun TV viewership increased to 31.9 million (up 7 per cent); Gemini TV increased to 31.7 million (up 21 per cent); KTV increased to 9.1 million; Udaya TV increased to 19 million (up 35 per cent); Surya increased to 6.7 million (up 24 per cent).

Up, up and away continues to be the Sun story.

EENADU TV
ETV Telugu increased to 31.9 million (up 10 per cent); ETV Kannada increased to 6.8 million; ETV Marathi increased to 5.2 million; ETV Bengali increased to 5 million (up 41 per cent); ETV Gujarati increased to 0.7 million and ETV Punjabi increased to 0.1 million.

Despite southern media titan Kalanithi Maran's onslaught on his domain, Ramoji Rao's ETV continues to be a potent force.

Print media:
Literacy versus readership trends: The total 12 years plus population increased by 1.7 per cent to 712 million; the literate population increased by 5.2 per cent to 444 million; and the SSC and above (education primary school level) increased by 9.4 per cent to 149 million.

Readership not linked to literacy levels:
Casual reading of dailies increased by 2 per cent (224 million people in 2002 as compared to 2000) whereas that of any publication increased marginally by 0.2 per cent (235 million people) whereas magazine reading registered a huge drop of 15.2 per cent. As far as regular reading was concerned, 145 million people read dailies (up 1.8 per cent) whereas 158 million read any publication (down 1 per cent) and 58 million read any magazine (down 20.5 per cent). It is fair to conclude that newspaper reading still retains its charm and it is a die-hard habit.

Readership trends in the case of dailies: Claimed readership of dailies in 2002 increased to 223.8 million (219.5 million in 2000) whereas the average issue readership increased to 144.9 million (as compared to 142.3 million in 2000); and the ratio of average issue readership to claimed readership was 64.7 per cent. The corresponding ratio for the urban India market dropped to 72.4 per cent whereas that for rural India market increased to 57.2 per cent. Rural India which has 44 per cent of any average issue readership seems to be better than urban India.

Key conclusions in the case of print media:
* Increasing nuclear families - increasing sales (circulation) not readership
* Increasing gap between Claimed Readership and Average Issue Readership - decreasing loyalty?
* Decreasing readership amongst select target groups
* Other Media growing … much faster
* Reducing RPCs - increasing sales (circulation) not readership

Top publications:
Top dailies: Out of a total of 144.9 million readers in urban+rural India, Dainik Jagran (14 million readers) topped the list and The Times of India (6.1 million) was placed tenth. Out of a total of 80.5 million readers in urban India, Dainik Bhaskar (7.7 million) topped the list and Punjab Kesari (3.3 million) was placed tenth. Out of the total of 64.4 million readers in rural India, Dainik Jagran (7.1 million) topped the list and Dainik Lokmat (3.2 million) was placed tenth.

Top magazines: Out of a total of 57.7 million magazine readers, Saras Salil topped the list with 7 million readers whereas Filmfare (2.5 million) was placed tenth. Out of a total of 33.1 million magazine readers in urban India, India Today (English) topped the list with 3.4 million readers and Competition Success Review was placed tenth with 1.6 million readers. Out of a total of 24.6 million readers in rural India, Saras Sahil (4.7 million) topped the list and Cricket Samrat (1.1 million) was placed tenth.

Top English publications: The Times of India (6.1 million) topped the list; India Today (4 million), The Hindu (2.8 million), Readers Digest (2.7 million) and Filmfare (2.5 million) followed suit. The Sportstar (1.3 million) was placed tenth.

Top Hindi publications: Out of a total of 63 million readers who read any Hindi publication, Dainik Jagran (14 million) topped the list followed by Dainik Bhaskar (13.5 million). Amar Ujala (7.5 million), Saras Salil (7 million) and Hindustan (6.3 million). Grihshobha (3.6 million) was placed tenth.

Also read:
IRS 2002 topline findings released; Top 10 TV channels list changes