MxMIndia

Tag: IRS 2017

  • It’s high time language newspapers challenge the difference in ad rates of English and language media, writes Indrani Sen

    Print shines in IRS2017

     

    By Indrani Sen

     

    The IRS 2017 Topline Report released on January 18, 2018 has reinstated the advertising and marketing industries’ trust in audience research. Kudos must be given to MRUC, RSCI and Nielsen for getting the world’s largest readership survey back on track. IRS 2017 is a definitely a richer version of its predecessors, backed by enlarged sample size, changes in methodology, introduction of new readership metrics and concepts enabling in depth analysis of not just print media but overall media consumption. The strict scrutiny and quality control designed and deployed by the IRS TechCom helped in ensuring the accuracy of the findings.

     

    MRUC however has to revisit the common NCCS definition and the durable based grid as already pointed out by Shripad Kulkarni in “IRS 2017 Top 5 Takeaways” on January 19. With rise in electrification, LPG stove ownership, B&W TV production becoming obsolete and every third home possessing a two-wheeler, it is not surprising that NCCS D/E have been found as “Fast Shrinking”. However, the reality may be different riddled with power cuts and shortage of LPG Gas cylinders, particularly in rural areas. Ownership of colour TV provides the 24X7 entertainment to the entire family at a very low cost through cable operators and DD’s Free Dish. Ownership of two-wheeler is a necessity for a livelihood to many living in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. How far the ownership of ceiling fan, LPG stove, two-wheeler and colour TV will help us in the socio-economic classification indicating the disposable income of the house holds should be re-examined. At the upper end, NCCS A1 and A2 seems to be apparently stagnant, however, based on the growth in the number of total households, there has been a few crores growth in the numbers of A1 and A2 households.

     

    In spite of the growth in urbanisation, 2/3rd of the almost 30 crores home in India still belong to the rural area. It is encouraging to note that TV reach and Newspapers reach are growing at a faster rate in rural area than in urban area.Again radio reach and newspaper reach are growing at faster rate than TV reach in urban area.

    All these reach figures are calculated on the basis of reach within 12+ individuals in last 1 month, the new readership metrics introduced in IRS 2017. Dailies added 11 crore readers in last three years, of which 4 crores came from urban India and 7 crores from rural India. On the demographic front, the readers among the younger age groups (12-15, 16-19, 20 -29 years) have shown higher growth than the older age groups. With more than 40% of our population below the age of 20 years, this trend is encouraging for the future of Print media.

    The high readership among the younger age group probably explains the stagnation in the yesterday readership against the growth in the other categories, up to 3 days, up to 7 days and last 1 month. Readers below 20 years and in their early twenties may not be regular readers of newspapers due to their pre-occupation with studies and other activities.

    This rise in readership of newspaper among younger age groups is a phenomenon of non-metro Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and rural areas as we do not see the reflection of this trend among the youth in the metro cities, skewed to English medium and digital media. IRS 2017 has found that newspaper read online is only 26% among NCCS A1, so our educated urban youth probably are engaged with other content on the internet.

     

    Except Times of India which ranks 11th,the Top 20 dailies are all in Hindi and other regional languages. From 2014 to 2017 most of the regional languages dailies have grown more than the growth of English dailies (10%). The highest growth has been achieved by Oriya which, from a smaller base, has grown by 83% while Bengali has grown by 9%. Among the South Indian Languages, Telegu has grown by 66%, Tamil 44% and Kannada 37%. Malayalam newspaper market is more saturated and has shown only 19% growth. Marathi has grown by 31% with Gujarati scoring above it with a 45% growth. Hindi has also grown by 45% while Punjabi and Urdu have grown by 51% and 53% respectively from smaller bases.

     

    Armed with the findings of IRS 2017 and various other studies which show the growth potential of the smaller towns and rural areas, it is high time for the language newspapers to challenge the difference in the advertising rates of English and language newspapers in India. Marketing communication in any regional daily can work effectively when the content is also effectively designed in the same regional language and is not a poor translation from English or Hindi.As our creative agencies have not shown much interest in developing content in regional languages, perhaps the regional language newspapers can explore the option of developing advertising content for their own markets. If journalism can develop so well in regional language, it may not be difficult to develop advertising content and increase profitability in the new era of content marketing.

     

     

  • There is much anticipation for the Indian Readership Survey 2017 set to release this afternoon

    17 Things to Watch Out for in IRS 2017

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    With just a few hours in balance for the unveiling of IRS2017, there are many things one is looking forward at the late afternoon release of the report.

     

    Of course what will happen at the venue is just the release of the top-level data. What’s needed eventually is the detailed data which media owners, media agency professionals and advertisers will use for an analysis of what lies ahead for them and the business.

     

    We’ve made this list of 17 notable things that we would be looking forward to following post the release of the data.

     

    1. Overall growth or degrowth of print

    Our sources tell us that print has grown in early double-digit percentage on the back of language publications. However, given that internationally print is declining and we’ve also seen India has consistently bucked the trend, it would be good to see how print news has done given the explosion of television news and also the rise of news served digitally – even in Hindi and regional languages.

     

    2. Will English get beaten given digital?

    And even if the overall pie grows, the focus will be on the English print news segment – specifically newspapers. If it degrows, and this could be a result of the rise of digital news in English, it could also offer indicators to the over print newspaper space.

     

    3. Magazines – further decline or growth?

    It’s possibly just a coincidence that a conference of magazine publishers was held earlier this week, just a few days before the release of IRS 2017. But, then, magazine publishers have over the years questioned the efficacy of IRS as a currency for buying print magazine space. But still it would be interesting to see the data for the mass readership-based print giants.

     

    4. Delhi ka Sultan Kaun?

    We’ve read about the battles for Delhi in our history books. But that’s been assorted leaders of another era. Over the last two decades, The Times of India has been steadily gaining ground in the capital and its surround areas. The top brass in TOI – wherever they may be in the world – will eagerly look at the numbers. As will the captains at Hindustan Times which has revved up its over the last decade-and-a-half. The question uppermost in everyone’s mind: who will forge ahead in Delhi and NCR in IRS2017.

     

    5. Pink City ki Rani

    It’s a market that’s not as large as many others, but given the presence of players DainikBhaskar and Rajasthan Patrika, the battle is as fierce as one of those several fought by the Rajputs and the Rajas many decades back. Whoever wins will raise the warcry from the rooftops, and whoever doesn’t, well, even the sky won’t be the limit for it to cry murder. Well, whatever

     

    6. Mumbai: The Battle for #2, 3, 4

    Mumbai is a clear market for English papers. The Times of India rules. Given that it comes as a part of an optional package, it’s smooth sailing for Mumbai Mirror. The battle now is for the next in line: Hindustan Times, Mid-Day or DNA. We think we know who will be the winner, but let’s wait for the data

     

    7. Will it be Sakal or challenger Lokmat in Pune?

    For around the last two years, numerouno Marathi paper Lokmat has been claiming the #1 status in Pune, a market that has been dominated by Sakal for decades. In the absence of an IRS, some of the claims stuck though they were fiercely contested by Sakal. IRS 2017 will bring in some clarity on this. As they say, doodhkadoodh, panikapani.

     

    8-11. Other Metros –The Leaders and the Challengers

    There is a challenger brand in all the other key metros, and while the leader has been known, it will be interesting to see what the data throws up. We’re referring specifically to Kolkata to see if there’s any impact on Telegraph and ABP at all. Similarly in Chennai, where The Hindu rules, but it will be interesting to see if The Times of India has been able to effect a dent in numbers. We would love to see the very well-designed New Indian Express also up there, but this is a battle for readership numbers, alas. Over the years, it’s The Times of India that has led Bengaluru given its changing demographics, but Deccan Herald is a local favourite too. Similarly, in Hyderabad, it would be good to see how Deccan Chronicle is doing vis-à-vis TOI.

     

    12. Tier 3 markets

    The need for data is huge in Tier 3 and Tier 4 markets too, including the non-English space amongst regional leaders. Of particular interest are: Nagpur, Raipur (and rest of Chhatisgarh), Bhubaneswar, Kochi (and rest of Kerala)… the list could go on.

     

    13-14. Lucky for whom – MP, UP… rest of cow belt

    The battlelines are huge, and possibly should have been ranked higher. It will be interesting to see how the old favourites will do here. Of particular interest to us is how the UP leaders do – DainikJagran, Amar Ujala and Hindustan. Madhya Pradesh has DainikBhaskar dominating, but Patrika is around and is not known to sit pretty

     

    15-16-17.  Perhaps this should have been the first point. Or perhaps it should have been all the points. But a lot depends on how the MRUC and RSCI respond to cribs of its constituents. The last time around, we believe there was a breakdown because of some cowboys on both sides of the divide. This time around, we hear much pragmatism has prevailed. Hurray for that!

     

     

  • IRS 2017 Live! Today, Jan 18, 3pm onwards

    The live webcast of the IRS 2017 was aired from 3 to 5pm today.

    We’ll post a link to the video recording in a few days.