IRS returns after six years with trust-and-attention metric

Six years is a long time to leave media planners guessing. The Media Research Users Council India (MRUCI) has revived the Indian Readership Survey (IRS), which was last released in early 2020 before disappearing during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The redesigned study promises updated readership and media consumption data for publishers, advertisers and agencies. The big shift is that it will measure digital readership across apps, e-papers, websites and online editions alongside traditional media, offering a single-source view of audiences across platforms.

Trust and attention join the measurement race

Reach has been the comfort metric of media planning for decades. The revived IRS wants to add a media quality and impact measure, developed by MRUCI’s Technical Committee and building on foundational work from research partner Inteliphyle. It will explore parameters such as trust and attention, moving beyond reach as the sole measure of media effectiveness.

That matters because two platforms can deliver the same number of eyeballs and completely different levels of attention. A reader who trusts a publication and lingers over its content is not the same as a user who scrolls past a banner. The proposed metric would support cross-media comparisons and help advertisers assess the value of different platforms.

Why this matters for brand planning

• A single-source view can show how print and digital audiences overlap, rather than treating them as separate silos.
• The revised sample design will focus on affluent and super-affluent households, useful for premium and high-ticket brands.
• A trust-and-attention metric lets planners ask which platform earns engagement, not just which one delivers exposure.

MRUCI chairman Vikram Sakhuja said the revival comes as the industry needs credible audience measurement across India, and that the new IRS will look at both media penetration and impact. IRS Technical Committee chairman Shashidhar Sinha added that the design has been updated to reflect changes in the media landscape while strengthening sample design and representation.

What to do while the data rolls out

MRUCI will implement the study in two stages. The first phase covers two states, including one metro, before the survey expands to the remaining markets. A smaller pre-pilot will test key elements of the design, and the first-phase report, funded by MRUCI, is expected within six months of the study’s initiation.

For brand teams, that staged release is an opportunity, not a delay. Use the early data to test assumptions about print-digital overlap in your categories. Ask media partners for trust and attention evidence alongside reach numbers, and start modelling what a cross-platform audience actually looks like. The goal is to make IRS an industry currency, and the brands that treat it as a planning tool rather than a scoreboard will get there first.

Source: Afaqs!