TOI leads The Hindu by 49,000 in Chennai

TOI leads The Hindu by 49,000 in Chennai

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: 11.10.2020

The Times of India remains the No 1 English daily in Chennai, growing steadily over the last four quarters to touch an average issue readership (AIR) of 2.96 lakh, shows the latest Indian Readership Survey (IRS).

The IRS for the fourth quarter of 2019 shows TOI Chennai increased its lead over the nearest competitor, The Hindu, to 49,000 from 1,000 in the first quarter. While TOI Chennai’s AIR grew by 17,000 between IRS quarter three and quarter four, The Hindu’s AIR dropped by 20,000.

TOI is also the fastest growing English daily in the rest of Tamil Nadu — it grew 165% by the fourth quarter compared to the IRS first quarter figures. In the fourth quarter alone, TOI’s AIR grew by 12,000 in the rest of Tamil Nadu, compared to The Hindu’s growth of 2,000.

The Times of India remains the dominant market leader among English dailies countrywide, with a total readership of more than 1.73 crore, almost equal to the combined readership of the three biggest dailies from outside the Times Group — The Hindu, Hindustan Times and The Indian Express.

The latest IRS data show that while the readership of all English dailies rose by 5.9 lakh over the previous quarter, this was mainly driven by a 3.6 lakh-rise in the readership of the TOI main paper. The share of group publications (The Economic Times and Mirrors besides TOI) among English dailies continued to grow to reach 52.6%.

The all-India dominance is also reflected in the country’s largest cities. In almost every case, the TOI main paper has either consolidated its leadership and widened the gap with its closest rival or, in the few cities where it is not the leader, it has narrowed the gap with the leader.