It's that time of the year again. The National Readership Survey Council (NRSC) released its annual National Readership Survey (NRS) about a month ago. And in what has become a recurring theme, affected parties cried foul.
But there's a crucial difference this time around. Admitting that it had bungled up on some of the figures in NRS 2006, the NRSC has sent out to its subscribers a new CD with corrections.
An accompanying letter admits: "After the release of NRS 2006 we have identified certain minor errors, which had unfortunately crept in."
Some of the goof-ups:
* The total readership of Nai Dunia was reported as 7,23,000 instead of the correct 1,107,000.
* Dainik Nai Dunia readership was erroneously reported as 8,28,000 in place of 4,33,000.
* FM radio listeners claimed to have heard programmes in areas where there were no transmissions.
* The populations of Ghaziabad, Moradabad and Barreily were incorrectly given.
In all, 2,84,373 house-to-house interviews were conducted for this year's survey. Among publications, 305 magazines and 230 dailies were covered. A key revelation was that print's combined reach has shot up from 216 million to 222 million over the last one year.
Other key findings:
* On an average, Indians spend 39 minutes every day for reading.
* No English newspaper features in the top 10 list of dailies.
* The reach of satellite TV has shown a big jump from 207 million people watching in an average week to 230 million individuals.
* Television has registered a growth of 3.2 per cent over last year.
* FM radio reach has more than doubled with 119 million individuals listening in an average week.
* Urban India has shown faster growth in Internet reach — from 2.3 per cent to 3.4 per cent.
* Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh dominate the TV markets with reaches of 76.2 per cent, 76.2 per cent and 78 per cent respectively.
