Highlights

The National Readership Study 2005 (NRS 2005) in India is the largest survey of its kind in the world, with a sample size of over 2,61,212 house-to-house interviews to track the media exposure and changing consumer trends in both urban and rural India - and of course the estimated readership of publications.

The study covers 522 publications (221 dailies and 301 magazines)

Highlights from The NRS 2005

The reach of the press medium (dailies and magazines combined) has .

However the reach has fallen in urban India - from 48% to 46%. Rural India has filled the gap - the reach there rising from 17% to 19% -- needless to say, on a much larger population base. The number of readers in rural India is now roughly equal to that in urban India.

Dailies have driven this growth in the press medium, their reach rising from 23% to 24%. Magazines have declined in reach from 13% to 10%over the last three years.

Satellite TV has grown explosively in reach - from 134 million individuals watching in an average week in 2002 to as many as 190 million individuals in 2005 - almost catching up with the number of readers.

The time spent reading has gone up quite significantly though - from 30 minutes daily on an average to 39 minutes per day over the last three years. The increase has been sharp both in urban India (from 32 to 42 minutes daily) and in rural India (from 27 to 35 minutes daily).

Radio's reach has stagnated at 23% of the population listening to any station in the average week. It has improved its performance in urban India (23% listen to the medium, up from 20% three years ago) primarily due to FM. In rural areas, the reach has dropped - 23% of village folk listen nowadays compared to 25% three years ago.