TV news appetizer for newspapers

NEW DELHI: Guess who''s the winner with the recent proliferation of TV news channels? Not TV news but newspapers, according to an ongoing study conducted by the Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies (CMS). Instead of adversely affecting newspaper readership habits,
TV news seems to have left readers asking for more. In other words, the more news you see on TV, the greater is the tendency to pick up a newspaper, according to CMS'' study on the "Appetizer effect of TV news on newspaper readership".
"TV news is adding to the readership as well as credibility of mainline daily newspapers", says N Bhaskara Rao, chairman, CMS.
The study, a survey of 150 ‘vie-wer-readers’ in New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad, has been conducted over the past one year. CMS found that the sample that watched TV news the previous night spent 60 per cent more time in reading newspapers.
The study revealed that TV viewers returned to newspapers to get details as well as to reconfirm the credibility of news on TV. It also said the credibility of mainline newspapers has improved over TV news during the last one year.
Interestingly, the survey findings were most apparent in Chennai, followed by Hyderabad, Delhi and Kolkata. The study also highlighted that housewives are spen-ding more time with newspapers.
On future trends, CMS maintained that this "complementary phenomenon" between the two media will grow in the years ahead. Across the country, TV reaches a little over 50 per cent of the adult population against nearly 40 per cent for all newspapers.
Since 2000, the readership base in India has grown from 163 million to 180 million, a growth of 10 per cent. Currently, cable and satellite TV news has a reach in over 25 million cable homes. Then there’s Doordarshan, which enters over 75 million homes. Post September 11, TV news viewership has grown by 250 per cent.