TV viewers in India now much more than all of Europe’s

MUMBAI: Television was always big in India. It only got bigger this year — perhaps as big as the entire continent of Europe. BARC India, the country's TV viewership monitoring agency, has increased its estimates for audience size and television penetration, saying the medium now is watched by 780 million citizens in the South Asian nation.

By comparison, Europe has a population of about 745 million. After the update, the homes with a television set in the country have gone up to 183 million from 154 million, implying an increase in TV penetration to 64%, from the earlier estimate of 54%.

The marked increase follows the latest Broadcast India Survey, the largest ever research study undertaken to ascertain TV universe and television viewing habits in India. Fieldwork for the Broadcast India survey was carried out between November 2015 and February 2016, covering 300,000 homes across 590 districts, touching about 4,300 towns and villages.

Partho Dasgupta, CEO at BARC India, said, "The TV universe in India is ever growing and changing and so is the profile and choice of a TV viewer. The last survey done was in 2013 and the last Census was in 2011. The consumer and viewer landscape is changing rapidly with electrification, prosperity, changing modes of signal and digitisation."