<font color="#FF0000"><b><font color="#FF00033">NRS 2005</font></b></font>: Readership per copy goes down; language publications move up

As per the National Readership Survey (NRS), the number of readers per copy has declined in the last three years. The main reason behind this is the shrinking size of households – especially in the rural markets. In rural India, the average number of members per household has gone down from 6.3 (NRS 2002) to 5.5 in 2005.

NRS 2002 statistics showed the average number of members in urban India in a household was 5.4, which has marginally declined to 5.2 (NRS 2005).

The other reason behind this trend is that more people are watching cable and satellite television in both urban and rural India, which has resulted in less inclination to borrow a copy of a daily.

As per NRS, the reach of C&S television in urban India has increased from 45.8 per cent in 2002 to 52.6 per cent in 2005, while print media’s reach has declined from 48.1 per cent in 2002 to 45.4 per cent in 2005.

Similarly, in the rural market, the reach of television has increased from 8.8 per cent in 2002 to 14.5 per cent in 2005. However, unlike the urban market, the print medium’s reach hasn’t declined but has increased by 1.8 percentage points from 17.3 per cent in 2002 to 19.1 per cent in 2005.

The rising number of news channels has also contributed to this trend. The number of news channels has tripled in 2005 from 2002, and the maximum increase has happened in the lower socio-economic groups from SEC C to E2.

However, the overall reading time has increased especially in urban India. As per NRS 2005, the average reading time per minute has increased from 32 minutes in 2002 to 42 minutes in 2005 in urban India. Meanwhile, the average time for television viewing has almost reached its saturation point. The increase in average television viewing time in urban India has been negligible. It has increased by 1 minute from 100 minutes per day in 2002 to 101 minutes per day in 2005.

However, the overall readership of language publications has gone up especially in the rural markets since 2002. As per NRS 2005, the rural markets of Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh have shown tremendous growth in readership of language publications. The number of readers in Bihar and Jharkhand (combined), and Uttar Pradesh has increased by 84 lakhs each. In Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh (combined), the number has increased by 54 lakhs. While in West Bengal, Orissa and Assam, the numbers have grown by 37 lakhs, 30 lakhs and 17 lakhs, respectively.

Among the South Indian states, Andhra Pradesh has registered the maximum growth. In rural AP, the number of readers from language newspapers has increased by 1.04 crores. © 2005 agencyfaqs!