Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2016 launched

The Readership Studies Council of India (RSCI), formed jointly by the Media Research Users Council (MRUC) and the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), has announced the launch of the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) for 2016, the world's largest continuous survey of media usage, product consumption and ownership.

The 2016 IRS data will be released by January next year, followed by regular quarterly updates. The survey has increased its sample size by 40 per cent at an all-India level, targetting a total of 3.3 lakh respondents, across 91 individual districts and 101 district clusters.

Speaking on the launch of the IRS 2016, I Venkat, chairman, MRUC, says, "The Indian Readership Survey is one of the most definitive surveys for print media, consumer demographic profiling, and product consumption habits. 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 finalised our research design and begun the field work. IRS is the only industry-recognised readership and consumer profiling survey in the country and the team has worked hard to ensure it meets the high standards expected of it."

An official statement says that to ensure reliability of the IRS, 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. 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 Readership Studies Council of India (RSCI) is an industry body formed jointly by the Media Research Users Council (MRUC) and the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) to disseminate the Indian Readership Survey (IRS).

The MRUC is an industry body that has members representing advertisers, agencies, publishers and broadcasting industries. The ABC is a not-for-profit organisation that certifies circulation figures for member publications through a process of audit.