Traditional media growing Audiences, alongside Digital: landmark Inteliphyle study

Inteliphyle's conclave The Big Media Reset has suggested that while digital continues to surge, traditional media remains central to brand influence.

Launched alongside the conclave, Inteliphyle's Unified Media View Study (UMVS) report - “The Great Media Myth — And the New Playbook It Demands” - calls for a rethink of how marketers evaluate media effectiveness.

Print media continues to expand its audience base, as does TV and Radio, the report has revealed.

Based on a single-source framework covering 12,124 affluent urban consumers across Delhi, Mumbai and key Hindi-speaking markets in UP, Uttarakhand, Bihar and Jharkhand, the study shows that media consumption today is layered, not linear. The study was conducted in July-September 2025, and several trend comparisons in the presentation are shown against IRS 2019.

“Consumers are not switching platforms - they are stacking them,” said Prasun Basu, Co-Founder & Chairman, Inteliphyle, presenting the “WHAT” of the reset. The data showed legacy media has been growing alongside digital.

The study further showed that monthly TV audience reach rose from 24.9 million in 2019 to 27.5 million in 2025, newspapers from 16.1 million to 18.1 million, expanded sharply from 18.1 million to 29.9 million in Delhi, Mumbai and key Hindi-speaking markets in UP, Uttarakhand, Bihar and Jharkhand.

The implication, Basu noted, is that planners must design for reinforcement across screens rather than substitution between them.

The study also says that fragmented measurement ecosystems are complicating decision-making. Vikram Sakhuja, Partner & Director, Madison Group and Chairman, MRUC, speaking on “Media Planning in a World of Data Overload and Data Vacuum,” underscored the need for unified frameworks that move beyond siloed platform metrics. Mr. Sakhuja added that media needs to focus on demand gen, not just demand fulfillment, which seems to be a significant focus area today. This implies a need for a media mix with differential purposes delivered through digital and traditional in combination. 

Moving from scale to influence, Tennis Mathew, Client Director & Media Specialist at Inteliphyle, unpacked the “WHY.” His core argument: reach is only the starting point - trust and attention determine brand impact. Newspapers recorded the highest Net Trust Score at 52%, ahead of television at 40%, online news at 32% and radio at 26%.

Attention dynamics put newspapers and television almost at par, at 56% and 55% respectively on Net Attention Index, and showed significantly lower concurrent activity levels for newspaper - just 10% of readers reported engaging in other non-media tasks while reading newspaper. Trust also translated into stronger engagement, with an increase in time spent ranging between +15 to +29% among different medium users who trust the medium.

Adding the “HOW,” Aarti Paradkar, Associate Director, Inteliphyle, highlighted sharp regional contrasts. Traditional platforms such as television and newspapers continue to deliversubstantial reach in markets like Bihar and Jharkhand, while even in mega metros their penetration remains formidable despite high digital adoption.

A fireside conversation with Bhaskar Ramesh, JioHotstar, explored evolving platform competition and viewing behaviors in a hybrid video ecosystem. A second fireside featuring Hector Anklesaria, Tata Capital, and Manisha Kapoor, ASCI, examined “Digital, Traditional, Trust, Attention: One Complicated Family,” reflecting on how regulatory expectations, consumer confidence, cross-media realities and most importantly, brand purpose are reshaping communication strategies. Industry leaders at the event noted that Print continues to play a lead role in the influence hierarchy, followed closely by other traditional platforms.