Reach Of Different Advertising Media In India
The Indian economy is booming and as a result, the various advertising and communication media are also flourishing. The population distribution of India shows that of the 1028.7 million people in the country, 65.4 per cent are literate. Around 29.1 per cent live in urban areas and 70.9 per cent in rural areas. Males form 51.8 per cent of the total population and females, 48.2 per cent. In order to understand media impact in advertising it is reasonable to mention reach of different medias and this section of thesis attempts to do this with reference to India.
Reach of Television
Source: PwC 2006
India will have more than 500 channels in the next two years and may well become the largest television market in the world by 2015. Television has the highest reach in urban areas and reached more than 75 per cent of the urban population in 2007. These viewers watched TV at least three days a week. Television continues to be the medium with the highest reach, but penetrates only 38 per cent of the huge rural population in the country.
Reach of print media
At the same time, literacy has risen to encompass 551 million people and more people in both rural and urban areas are reading newspapers and magazines. According to current estimates, the print media reaches 316 million people. The print medium has the second highest reach in urban areas, with 35 per cent penetration. The percentage reach for the print medium denotes average issue readership. The penetration of print is 15 per cent in rural India.
Reach of radio
According to Lintas Media Guide 2008 Radio is estimated to provide 1.5 million hours of content for 300 channels at present. The medium forms 3 per cent of total ad spend this year, and is expected to grow to 5 per cent in 2008-09. Radio overtakes print in rural India and becomes the medium with the second most reach. Radio reaches, 18 per cent of the rural population. Globally local retail advertising constitutes a large part of revenue of radio media but in India the local advertising constitutes only 8% of revenue of radio. Ideally a localized media like radio can be used as very effective medium for localized promotions and region-specific advertising campaign.
Reach of Internet:
The Internet also shows a lot of promise and has grown 43 per cent in terms of advertising revenue. But it reaches even less than 2% of total population of India.
Gender-wise reach of different media:
On the basis of sex, the penetration of all media remains less for females than for males in both urban and rural areas. In urban India, TV reaches 75 per cent of males and 74 per cent of females. Press permeates to 46 per cent males and 27 per cent females. Radio has 24 per cent and 19 per cent reach for males and females, respectively. Cinema reaches 10 and 3 per cent males and females and the Internet reaches 6 per cent and 2 per cent males and females, respectively.
State-wise Reach of Different media
Looking at state-wise reach in urban areas, television has the highest reach in all the states, including Chandigarh, Delhi and Goa. All three states reveal 87 per cent penetration. TV has the lowest reach in Bihar, with only 49 per cent penetration. Print has the highest penetration in Kerala and the lowest in Orissa. Reach figures for both states are 71 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively.
Radio has the highest reach in Tamil Nadu – 40 per cent – and the lowest reach in Punjab – 9 per cent. Cinema is most successful in Andhra Pradesh, with 20 per cent reach, and least effective in Goa and Himachal Pradesh, with only 1 per cent reach in each state. The Internet is most useful as a medium in Delhi and Goa, with 12 per cent reach in each state, and the least used medium in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, with just 2 per cent reach in each state.
