World's largest readership survey gets underway, first result early next year

World's largest readership survey gets underway, first result early next year

New Delhi, 23 March: The world’s largest continuous survey of media usage, product consumption and ownership – the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2016 – has commenced and the first report will be out in January next year.

The Readership Studies Council of India (RSCI) which was formed jointly by the Media Research Users Council (MRUC) and the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) conducts the survey which after the first report gives regular quarterly updates.

The survey increased its sample size by 40% at an ‘All India’ level, targeting a total of 3.30 lakh respondents, across 91 Individual Districts and 101 District Clusters.

Speaking on the launch of the IRS 2016, MRUC Chairman I Venkat said, “The Indian Readership Survey is one of the most definitive surveys for print media; consumer demographic profiling and product consumption habits, anywhere in the world. India is one of those unique markets where the print medium is growing consistently even though we are on the brink of a digital revolution. After consultations with all relevant stakeholders we have finalized our research design and begun the field work. IRS is the only industry recognized readership and consumer profiling survey in the country and the team has worked hard to ensure it meets the high standards expected of it.”

In view of controversies created in some previous years with major chains boycotting the survey or raising objections, the technical committee has enhanced the process of back-checks and included a third party auditor for monitoring the end to end process of survey design and quality control checks to ensure reliability of the data collected.

The survey has also added numerous safety enhancement layers, powered by technology. Some of these include a tracker for GPS locations of interviewers, enhanced audio recording and electronically addressed forms.

The MRUC is an industry body created with the purpose of providing its members with credible and consistent research enabling critical marketing and business decisions. Established in 1994, the Council has members representing advertisers, agencies, publishers and broadcasting industries.

The Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) was founded in 1948 and is a not-for-profit organisation certifying circulation figures for member publications, through a process of audit.