How does India watch television? A lowdownIf a TV set was indeed an idiot box,the world has more idiots than sane consumers. The growing influence of new media such as internet and mobile phones and the clout of newspapers and magazines notwithstanding,television continues to rule the media landscape in most markets across the world. India is no exception. The figures speak for themselves. Despite a much longer history,print media in India is still out of reach of more than 70 per cent of the population. Internet reaches only around six per cent media consumers across the country. Television has emerged as the most powerful medium of entertainment,education and awareness. With inputs from Mumbai-based television audience measurement agency TAM Media Research,we present a snap-shot of TV consumption pattern in India.It reaches more than 60 per cent of Indian households. Most interestingly,of the 134 million television households in the country,70 million are in rural areas and 64 million in urban India. It is accessed by people cutting across demographics,geography and socio-economic background. India is the worlds second largest broadcast market both in terms of viewership base as well as the number of channels (around 500) here. And yet,broadcast is a nascent phenomenon in India. It has been around for five decades and 40 per cent of the population is outside its reach.News as a genre has maximum number of players (81 up-and-running 24x7 channels) but that doesnt necessarily translate into a higher viewership of news and current affairschannels. General entertainment,led by soaps and serials,rules the charts followed by the recent phenomenon of reality shows. The audience for family drama,across the country,is dominated by housewives who account for as much viewership as men do but certainly spend more time on the couch. Unlike average Americans who devour TV for more than four hours a day,average Indians watch television for two and a half hours a day. Viewers in southern states,though fewer in number than in north India,tend to plonk themselves on the couch for longer. They spend close to three hours every day in front of the television against around two hours spent by viewers in the Hindi-speaking markets. Hindi also continues to be the language with the greatest reach and audience. It accounts for 43 per cent of the total broadcast universe followed by 37 per cent share of all regional languages put together. Channels in English,despite the language's growing social influence even in rural markets,gets only 11 per cent of viewership share. There is an unusually high number of news and current affairs channels,many of which have direct or indirect political linkages. But the genre gets only 7.5 per cent of the total viewership against around 51 per cent viewership of general entertainment channels across languages.In the news genre,Hindi channels lead the pack,followed by regional news channels. English news channels,despite their star power,trail with a miniscule 0.4 per cent viewership. While crime and politics are most popular segments for all news channels,Hindi channels tilt towards entertainment and astrology. Being one of the most hotly contested segments on television,Hindi news has seen a visible decline in its content offerings and focus over the past few years.
