MEDIA INDEX

MEDIA INDEX


Some of the following data is gathered from government sources and market research predominantly in the Indian metros. They may hide huge variations stemming from language differences and a stark urban-rural divide

Media Exposure

Television has the highest number of "heavy viewers" (43.6%) while the press has 41.1% non-readers, and radio 70.6% non-listeners, according to a study conducted in the metros of eight most advanced states.

There are 31 newspapers per 1000 people in India

61 in 1000 people own a television.

81 in 1000 people own a radio.

13 in 1000 people have access to a telephone.

Average hours a week an Indian spends reading a newspaper/magazine: 2.1

Average hours a week an Indian spends watching television: 8.4

15 out of every 100 Indian women watch a movie at a theater once a month.

50 out of every 100 Indian women watch TV or listen to the radio regularly.

Print Media

The number of dailies has increased from 2538 in 1989 to 4043 in 1994

Their combined circulation has increased from 20 million to 32 million.

Number of non-dailies has increased from 25,000 to 31,000 between 1990 and 1997

Circulation of non-dailies has decreased from 43 million to 41 million in the same period.

One Indian newspaper – The Times of India – ranks 10th among the top-selling newspapers in the world (all other nine newspapers are Asian).

Cost of press advertising has increased by 906% since 1985.

The press accounts for 66% of total media ad revenue, down from 75% in 1985.

One out of every two publications is either in Hindi or in English

25% of member-publications of the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) are in English.

English-language publications account for 71% of the annual advertising revenue of INS-members.

70 % of the country's newspaper circulation is controlled by 7 families or groups.

Foreign print media are not allowed entry into print media, but this is thought to be inevitable.

Television and cable

65 million of the 170 million households in the country, or approximately 38 percent, own televisions.

Of this, 17 million homes have cable connections.

40 percent of Indian homes in towns below 100,000 population are connected to cable TV

31 percent of Indian homes in 8 ‘advanced' metros are connected to cable TV.

Doordarshan has a population reach of 330 million.

Satellite channels reach a population of 70 million.

The number of satellite channels has gone up from none in 1990 to 50-plus in 1997

Number of programme hours increased from 1500 per month to 25,000

50.8% of TV programme content is entertainment, followed by 13.3% of news and 9.6% education.

There are 70,000 cable networks in the country.

1 out of every 3 Star TV viewers worldwide is Indian.

40 percent of Star TV's revenue comes from its Indian operations.

Cost of TV advertising has increased by 329% between 1985 and 1997.

TV's share of advertising revenue has gone up from 12% to 25%.

53.1% of Doordarshan's programmes are in Hindi, 21.2% in English and 25.7% in other languages

28% of the programmes of other satellite channels is in Hindi, 40.6% in English and 31.4% in regional languages.

Radio
There are 104 million radio households in the country, and approximately 111 million radio sets.

Radio covers 97.3% of the country's population and 91% of the country's geographical area.

There are a total of 186 radio broadcasting centers (March 1996).

There are 148 medium wave transmitters, 51 short wave transmitters and 94 VHF/FM transmitters.

The number of radio stations has increased from about 100 in 1990 to 209 in 1997.

Radio broadcasting is done in 24 languages and 146 dialects.

Listening hours per week in 1991 as compared to 1995 are: regular (6-7 days) 54.1 and 49.3 hours; frequent (3-5 days) 23.2 and 27.3 hours; occasional (1-2 days) 14.8 and 15.7 hours;

Advertising revenue has increased from Rs. 527 million in 1991-92 to Rs. 809 million in 1995-96.

Telecommunications
Between 1947 and 1997,

the number of telephone exchanges increased from 321 to more than 21,000;
number of telephone lines from 82,000 to 13, 033, 000;
number of urban public call offices (PCOs) from 338 to 400,000;
number of rural telephones from nil to 2,400,000
There are 23,406 telephone exchanges, 21,260,000 lines and 17, 800, 000 telephone connections (March 1998)
The demand for telephone and working connections (in thousands) has increased from 50, 879,000 in 1987-88 to 174,298,000 in 1996-97.


42855 villages have been provided with public telephones in 1997-98.

18.5 million additional lines are planned by the year 2002; private operators are to provide 5.2 million of these lines.

There are 90,042 Internet subscribers (March 31, 1998).

Of this, only 45,000 are paid subscriptions; annual revenue to VSNL, the top internet service provider, is $20 million

The GOI announced plans to open the internet to private ISPs by November 7, 1998

Ownership and Control

A February 1995 Supreme Court judgement ruled that the airwaves are public property and no longer under government control

A Broadcasting Bill was formulated in 1996 which rests regulatory powers with an autonomous Broadcasting Authority and lays down guidelines for granting licenses to private broadcasters. The Bill has not yet been tabled in parliament.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting announced its decision in June 1998 to allow private Indian satellite channels to uplink from India