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BOMBAY, (AFP) - More and more Indians are making use of the media, with print the biggest winner having attracted 17 million new readers in the past two years, according to a study released here.

The study by the National Readership Studies Council (NRSC) said print has seen a 10 percent rise in readership since 2000, while the Internet and cable and satellite television were also strengthening their footholds in India.

The NRSC, a privately-funded think-tank that monitors media trends, put print readership at 180 million, but said there was still significant growth potential as 248 million literate adults still do not read any publication.

The readership of the print media is also well scattered between the urban and rural parts of the country with nearly 48 percent of readers from some 600,000 villages across rural India.

Among the urban dailies, the Dainik Bhaskar, Dainik Jagran and the Times of India were the top three sellers.

The study also found that access to the web was rising. "The Internet reach exceeds 6 million as of now and the growth has now stabilised at two million per annum," the report said.

It said as the reach of the Internet increased, the office was no longer the main place of access. "As many as 20 percent of users now access the net from home and 43 percent go to the cybercafe," it said.

Access to cable and satellite television jumped to 40 million in 2002 from 29 million in 1999 even as television reached 81.6 million Indian homes, reflecting a growth of 12 percent over 1999.

"The cable and satellite subscription has now penetrated 50 percent of all television homes," the report said.

It said television continues to command a 72 percent share of the average 13 hours a week spent on traditional media among urban audiences, although in absolute terms there was a slight decline in time spent on television in this market.

The study also found a significant change in readership patterns for the print medium, with women newspaper readers increasing to 25.4 million in 2002 from 21.7 million in 1999.

"This is at the cost of reading magazines which was considered the staple diet for most women," the study revealed.

The overall reader base of magazines in both urban as well as rural India has declined from 93.8 million in 1999 to 86.2 million in 2002.

It said it was mostly general interest, film/entertainment and sports magazines which had lost ground, with an average 25 percent fall in readers.

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