Who says mass media is dead?

A survey on media consumption throws up a few surprises, along with staples

VANITA KOHLI-KHANDEKAR
New Delhi, 15 June
PREFERRED MEDIA OF ENTERTAINMENT
ndians love watching Generation Gender

I television. More than 90

per cent of them, across
age groups and cities, list that Watching television
All

92
Trailing

92
Leading

85
Gen
Millennials Millennials Xers
92
Boomers Matures

95 95
Male Female

as their preferred medium of
entertainment. An average of
60 per cent rank reading the
newspaper as their next
favourite activity. These and
other heartening titbits are
what a little known report, The
State of the Media Democracy,
released earlier this year from
Deloitte, reveals.
The report publishes the
results of a survey that
Deloitte has been conducting,
through a research agency,
across the world for four
years. The survey samples
people between the age of 14
and 75 years in countries such
as Brazil, the US, UK and
India, among others. In India
2,000 people were surveyed in
the latter part of 2009.
Though the sample size is
very small and some of the
findings are rather obvious,
Ashesh Jani, media leader at
Deloitte India, reckons it
helps confirm things they
knew instinctively about how
media consumption happens.
Much of what the report says
also finds evidence in the
Indian Reader Survey data.
For instance, the fact is at 56
per cent, TV has the highest
91 93
Reading newspapers
(either printed or online) 58 50 46 63 68 62 56 62
Going to the movies 48 53 55 51 39 32 50 48
Listening to music
(using any device) 32 37 34 34 27 23 35 31
Listening to the radio
(any format/device) 18 21 24 13 17 24 18 17
Reading magazines
(either printed or online) 17 6 10 19 27 21 15 20
Attending live performances 15 18 14 14 14 11 16 13
Reading books (either physical books
5 12 6 4 3 7 6 6
or via an e-book reader/online)
Using the Internet for social
or personal interests 5 5 15 2 0 1 7 3
Playing videogames (handhelds, PC,
console, mobile//Smartphone, online) 4 5 6 3 3 1 5 1
All figures in % Source: The State of the Media Democracy, released by Deloitte
penetration among all media (91 per cent) and women (93 cent of those surveyed rated per view), theatre and
in India, and so it would get per cent) are equally heavily going to the movies as their sometimes the internet. The
the maximum viewership. into TV watching, says the third preferred medium of Deloitte figure is higher
The surprises point Deloitte report. This tallies entertainment. This goes because it captures people
towards trends that with TAM data for the last against the IRS data, which who are watching films
quantitative research few years. It shows men are has shown that over the years outside of a theatre, too.
agencies and media audit increasingly watching a lot the cinema watching habit Incidentally, in the US
firms have been talking about more TV than they did earlier, (meaning seeing a film in a survey, 70 per cent of those
for some time but which though women dominate theatre) has been going surveyed listed TV as their
haven’t yet become popular prime time. down. Again, this confirms preferred medium. Others
knowledge. For instance, the The other surprise was the the fact that people consume such as web-surfing and
myth that women control the movie-watching incidence: films across a range of media video games were also
remote. The fact is that men On an average, about 50 per — DVD, TV (satellite or pay prominent.