#e4mBreaking:  MRUC Board approves IRS pilot survey

After a six-year hiatus, the board of the Media Research Users Council of India (MRUCI) has finally given a go-ahead to the pilot survey to track changing readership patterns, highly placed industry sources told e4m.

The annual general meeting of the MRUCI was conducted Monday morning where the members approved the board’s proposal in this regard. The meeting was still on when this report was being filed. This is a developing story and details are awaited.

MRUCI chairman Shailesh Gupta could not be reached for comments.

On August 28, e4m had reported about the pilot survey early this month. The council, in its board meeting, had discussed conducting a pilot survey across three markets to cover both print and digital news readership.

Executives say the names of markets undertaken in the pilot survey are likely to be kept under wraps to avoid any manipulations from the publisher's side. The survey is likely to include one urban and one semi-urban population.

According to sources, the council may rope in Inteliphyle, a research firm led by Prasoon Basu, former executive at Kantar and Nielsen, to execute the much-awaited survey.

Notably, MRUCI had held several meetings over the past year on the survey but members never arrived at consensus. From the funding formula to survey methodology to the choice of agency and scope of survey were debated extensively without resolution.

e4m earlier reported that several key members of the Council are increasingly skeptical of the traditional door-to-door survey model, citing restricted access to housing societies post-COVID and rising privacy concerns. They cited that metro residents were less willing to spare 45 minutes for interviews, which could compromise the reliability of urban data and, in turn, the credibility of the IRS.

Publishers had also argued that the cost and complexity of resuming the survey may no longer be justifiable, especially as its relevance was being questioned in an increasingly digital-driven planning environment.

Last survey in 2019

The last survey was conducted in 2019. Since then, its rollout has been stalled — first due to the pandemic and later because of funding challenges.

Also Read: Rajiv Dubey's take on why India's media measurement must catch up with the attention economy

Meanwhile, India’s advertising industry has crossed ₹1.1 lakh crore in 2024, with print’s share in overall ad spends at 15–16%. This means the print industry still commands a significant ₹15,000–16,000 crore in ad revenues — making the currency even more critical for advertisers, particularly in today’s tight economic climate, where every marketing rupee is under close scrutiny.

The deadlock has triggered an industry-wide debate on whether the traditional readership survey can capture the full picture, given the explosive growth of digital news, short-form video, and social media consumption. Many observers also pitch for a wider study to gauge the consumption of all media platforms, along with print.

It would be worth watching to see whether the IRS evolves into a tech-driven, hybrid measurement system or continues with its legacy print-first approach or it loses its relevance forever, said an industry leader.