Newspapers reach 65% Non Metro and 32% Metro homes: EY Survey

04 September 2020: Newspapers turn out to be the most trusted news source during this pandemic, according to the survey report released by EY. The report ‘Will non-metro markets propel India’s recovery’, reveals that 32% of metro respondents are getting newspapers at home compared to 65% in non-metro markets.  Looking into time spent on reading a newspaper every day, 42% of respondents in non-metro markets spend more than 20 minutes reading a newspaper compared to 36% in metros. Out of 4,000 respondents from both Metros and Non-Metros, 35% trust newspapers as a reliable news source. TV medium is trusted by 16% whereas the online news is believed as an authentic news source by 20% of the respondents. The rest 28% acknowledges that all the above three medium is genuine.

About 77% of metro respondents and 75% of non-metro respondents read news online. Time spent on digital and electronic media is expected to increase on account of COVID-19.

With new OTT Players entering into the Market, Viewers Stay glued to OTT Platforms to Spend the Quarantine boredom.  OTT Consumption in both metro and non metro Markets has witnessed a surge since lockdown came into effect. 72% of Metro Respondents are expected to spend more time in OTT compared to 66% in Non-Metros.

The survey was conducted across a demographic mix of more than 4,000 respondents (2,000 each from the metro and non-metro markets) to understand the potential impact of the pandemic from the media consumption and consumer sentiment perspective.