Cable Tv Better Liked In Rural Ap

A recent IMRB survey has shown that more rural homes in Andhra Pradesh have opted for cable and satellite television than urban households "" 1.7 million rural households as against 1.5 million urban ones.

Another fact emerging from the study is that TV ownership has grown faster in Andhra Pradesh than in the rest of the country. There are an estimated 6.2 million TVs in the state with 84 per cent homes in Hyderabad owning a set.

The IMRB study was commissioned by Eenadu TV ( ETV) the Telugu cable outfit of the major newspaper group, Eenadu. The survey was conducted among 11,350 urban and 10,000 rural homes in Andhra Pradesh. According to IMRB, this is the largest sample ever attempted at the state level.

Eenadu TV was launched in August last year and the survey, done in July this year, aimed at assessing ETV's reach in the state.

According to ETV, the survey revealed a sea change in the reach of television and penetration of cable television after the launch of ETV a year ago.

The study found a 57 per cent growth in TV ownership in urban homes in the state since the National Readership Survey '95 ( NRS '95) while the cable and satellite television penetration was 52 per cent showing a growth of 159 per cent over NRS '95.

ETV was available in virtually all cable and satellite homes with 95 per cent in urban and 99 per cent in rural areas. More importantly, when ETV is available, it is watched by the whole family. The survey revealed that ETV topped among the four satellite television channels popular in the state, the others, in order of ranking were Gemini, DD1 and Zee.

ETV is all set to shift its uplinking from Colombo to Singapore from October 1. The shift has become necessary because of the better infrastructure and facilities available in Singapore as compared with Sri Lanka where ETV was the lone private satellite TV operator.

Almost all the private satellite TV operators in India have uplinking facilities either in Singapore or Hong Kong.

ETV is also finalising its proposed global and national news format and has entered into an agreement with the Reuter TV. The news facility is being set up at New Delhi and will become operational in a month time. ETV will be the first private Telugu satellite channel to telecast regularly a daily national news in the mornings.