MAM
NRS 2005 takes firm stand on C&S numbers
MUMBAI: The second edition of NRS 2005 was released yesterday and though the much talked about discrepancies in the cable and satellite (C&S) home numbers by NRS and IRS were a topic of debate, NRS brushed aside criticism saying its methodology was more scientific.
“The aim of the NRS methodology is to give better representation to each pocket of the country,” NRS counter-punched critics, saying it had conceived an all-district sampling strategy for NRS 2005.
NRS has estimated the number of TV owning households in India to be 108 million and the number of C&S connected households to be 61 million (or about 56 per cent of TV homes) as of March 2005.
IRS, on the other hand, conducted by MRUC, estimated the number of TV homes in June 2004 to be 83 million and the number of C&S homes to be 43 million (or about 52 per cent of TV homes).
IRS has also said that they expect to estimate between 90 to 94 million TV homes and between 46 to 50 million C&S homes (or between 51 to 53 per cent of TV homes) by the end of 2005.
For NRS 2005, the overall sample of 2,60,000 households was divided into three segments: urban random sample; rural random sample and nupscale boosters.
The random sample aims to mirror the profile of urban and rural segments of a state’s population. The Nupscale booster aims to give a minimum representation to upscale consumers as they are of interest to marketers.
The random sample was distributed across each town class and each village class of every district. This sample was weighed according to the population of each population stratum of each district.
The estimates at district level were then added to arrive at socio-cultural regions (SCR) level and thence to state and all India. Nupscale boosters in the top 35 cities were weighted separately to the Nupscale universe in each city.
Advantage for high-growth categories: The debate on TV household estimation brings into focus the clear advantage of this methodology over that followed in the other readership survey, namely that market movements in any pocket of the country will get detected.
The TV industry is in a growth phase: Expansion of the number of TV homes is taking place in semi-urban and rural areas of India – in large urban centres and consumers are upgrading from black and white to colour TV sets; from entry-level sets to feature-rich ones.
Validation: The Census department had, between April and June 2000, collected data on household assets, including TV sets owned. The figure put out was 60 million homes. Nearly five years have elapsed since then to 1 March, 2005, which is the estimation date for NRS 2005.
Various sources are available giving data on the sales of TV sets: Notably the ORG-GFK retail audit (which covers more than 90 per cent of the country’s organised TV dealer network) and the Consumer Electronics and TV Manufacturers’ Association of India (CETMA).
Accounting for replacement demand, unorganised sector sales, imports and a second-hand market that re-conditions TV sets sold in exchange schemes, nearly 10 million sets have been sold in India every year for the last five years, totaling about 50 million sets since mid-2000. Close to 45 million homes would have been added in five years.
Therefore, the expected number of TV homes in India as of March 2005 would be well over 100 million by any reckoning, said NRS in a statement.
The Two Surveys: The NRS estimates 108 million homes in March ’05. IRS does not cover all districts, but employs a “stratification” technique to select districts for coverage.
The latest IRS estimate (of 83 million TV homes) is for June 2004, but since it has indicated that even by end-2005 they expect to project between 90 and 93 million sets, the figures grossly underestimate the growth in TV homes in the past few years, NRS has contended.
The Lacuna: Why would incomplete coverage result in an underestimate? The districts for the other survey (done by IRS) have been selected after “stratifying” them according to the per-capita intensity of circulation of newspapers and magazines using an undisclosed procedure.
Since newspaper reading habits are assumed to change slowly, circulation patterns across districts are also expected to change slowly. The “stratification” will therefore deploy the sample cost-effectively for a readership study, but, NRS has pointed out, only if the assumption that readership habits change slowly holds true.
The Impact: In any product category where expansion is taking place in semi-urban and rural markets, incomplete district representation will miss out on new market movements.
In the case of TV sets, the impact of this expansion is on TV viewing and, hence, media habits in general can easily be imagined.
So, while incomplete district coverage may underestimate publications that are experiencing growth in readership in semi-urban and rural areas, it will also underestimate the impact of growing competition to the press media from TV channels.
The NRS 2005 strategy is the best available method of representing reality as it exists in India today because it provides for representation of every pocket of the country, the organization affirmed.
Also read:
MRUC disputes NRS 2005 TV homes figures
C&S penetration grows 53% to 61 million homes in 3 years: NRS 2005
MAM
How beverage brands are rethinking marketing strategies for weather-led demand
SLMG Beverages Private Limited joint managing director Paritosh Ladhani.
MUMBAI: As Sun climbs up the hemisphere, summer has clearly arrived in India. On 7th March 2026 Delhi registered a maximum temperature of 35.7 degrees Celsius which is the highest reading logged for the first week of March in the last 50 years. Climate Change has been prolonging summers by causing earlier spring warming, delayed autumn cooling, and more frequent, intense heatwaves that persist for much longer periods.
In an endeavor to stay ahead of the curve, Beverage Brands are shifting from fixed seasonal marketing tactics to weather responsive strategies backed by data-driven insights, flexible campaigns, and diversified portfolios to capitalize on unruly temperature spike. In 2025, India’s beverage market experienced a massive, heat-triggered surge with carbonated drinks and ice cream volumes spiking 20–25 per cent in the March quarter itself on the back of hottest February in 125 years.
Clearly campaign timelines are being advanced to reap the seasonal shift in line with the jumping mercury. In the Indian context where Cricket is nothing short of religion, big ticket tournaments like T20 World Cup, Indian Premier League, ICC Champions Trophy provide plethora of opportunities to calibrate marketing campaign designs and associated business strategies to associate refreshment with community viewing both outdoor and indoors. A new trend that has taken the world by storm is that of booking the theatres for bonhomie viewing. It has also opened avenues for joint marketing initiatives by the Multiplex and Beverage Brands.
Price disrupting small potions and value packs tend to drive significantly higher volumes owing to volumetric flexibility and affordability to the consumers. Ramping up of cold supply chains for transit and at point of sales (POS) are strategic business imperatives that again define success of beverage brands.
In the era of AI and Big Data it is easy to track and calibrate messaging based on daily or weekly weather changes. Geo-targeted digital advertisement campaigns are also being run during heatwaves to make the business and marketing imperative very contextual. These pre-emptive strategies fueled by real time data and technology immensely help beverage brands to adjust supplies to the areas that are likely to generate more demand.
Novelty brings premium to the FMCG Sector and Beverage Brands are no exception. Newer SKUs build up excitement in consumers besides imparting the scope of frequent revitalization of brand marketing campaigns. Ensuring continuum of supply chain across material suppliers, logistics providers, distributors/wholesalers, and retailers become a strategic business strategy imperative for beverage brands during peak season.
Carbonated drinks among other beverages including packaged mineral water sell like hotcakes in summers, a period where holiday season gives big impetus to sales volumes. Tying up with air carriers railways, amusement parks, malls, convention centers for inclusion in the onboard beverage deck also holds a big window of opportunity for brands.
Limited period diversification into special summer categories entailing juices and functional beverages to capture the broader hydration market is also a business cum marketing imperative that beverage brands eye on. This also brings to fore the responsible side of the brand placing the compass on wellness of consumers.
Seasons are cyclic, hence summers are inevitable. Further, due to anthropogenic climate change, summers surely have been staging prolonged appearance that keep bringing beverage brands on to their drawing boards frequently for strategizing business and marketing campaigns that are agile, refreshment-focused, visually dominant in retail, affordable, and optimally promoted through seasonal campaigns in above and below the line media.
