Times of India Leads Online News Ranking, While Also Generating Significant Traffic from Abroad
New Delhi, 1 October 2013 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released a report highlighting online news readership in India based on data from its comScore MMX service. The report showed that there has been significant growth in daily readership of news and information content in the past year, with an increase of 34 percent to 9.4 million average daily visitors to the category.
| comScore News/Information Properties in India August 2012-2013 Total India – Home and Work Computers Source: comScore MMX |
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| August 2012 | August 2013 | % Change | |
| Total Unique Visitors (000) | 40,044 | 45,902 | 15% |
| Total Visits (000) | 259,686 | 364,592 | 40% |
| Average Daily Visitors (000) | 7,042 | 9,402 | 34% |
| Average Minutes per Visitor | 31.6 | 41.6 | 31% |
| Total Unique Visitors (000) | 40,044 | 45,902 | 15% |
The Times of India Leads Online News Ranking
The Times of India continues to be the clear leader in the news category, maintaining its number 1 position since last year with 12.7 million unique visitors in August. India.com Sites showed 25 percent growth breaking into the Top 10 for the first time with more than 7.1 million unique visitors. In addition to those two properties, 16 of the top 20 news properties are currently local news publishers.
| comScore Top 20 News/Information Properties in India August 2013 Total India – Home and Work Computers Source: comScore MMX |
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| Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) | Rank | Property | Unique Visitors (000) | ||
| 1 | The Times of India | 12,715 | 11 | The Hindu Group | 4,201 | ||
| 2 | Yahoo!-ABC News Network | 10,721 | 12 | IBN Live | 4,175 | ||
| 3 | HT Media Ltd | 8,219 | 13 | The Indian Express Group | 3,492 | ||
| 4 | India Today Group | 7,676 | 14 | Bhaskar.com | 2,537 | ||
| 5 | India.com Sites | 7,188 | 15 | CNN Network | 2,171 | ||
| 6 | About | 7,044 | 16 | BBC | 2,113 | ||
| 7 | Jagran Sites | 6,312 | 17 | Sify News And Information | 2,034 | ||
| 8 | NDTV | 6,258 | 18 | HPMG News | 1,965 | ||
| 9 | OneIndia.com Sites | 6,182 | 19 | Navbharat Times | 1,862 | ||
| 10 | The Economic Times | 4,415 | 20 | FirstPost.com | 1,832 | ||
Data also suggests reader engagement for the news category has spiked within the past year, with users spending on average 31 percent more time on news sites at 41.6 minutes per visitor. DivyaBhaskar.co.in and Bhaskar.com demonstrated especially strong engagement at 100.3 minutes and 62.1 minutes, respectively. Other niche news sites with more modestly-sized audiences – including Jagbani.com, PunjabKesari.in, and Navbharat Times – also generated high engagement with a higher number of page views per visitor than the category average of 48.
Several Indian News Properties Attract Significant Audiences from Abroad
Continuing a past trend, many of the top Indian News sites see a significant amount of traffic from abroad. FirstPost.com generated the highest share of its audience from abroad at 51.3 percent, followed by Manorma Sites at 45%. The Times of India, as the most prominent news brand, also successfully extends its audience into other markets with 37.8 percent of its audience coming from abroad. NDTV, India.com Sites, and The Indian Express Group also have more than 30 percent of their respective audiences coming from outside of India.
| Share of Audience from Abroad Among Top News/Information Properties in India* August 2013 vs. August 2012 Total India – Home and Work Computers Source: comScore MMX |
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| Property | Unique Visitors (000) from Outside India | Unique Visitors (000) from India | % of Audience From Abroad |
| FirstPost.com | 1,932 | 1,832 | 51% |
| Manorama Sites | 902 | 1,089 | 45% |
| The Times of India | 7,736 | 12,715 | 38% |
| NDTV | 3,550 | 6,258 | 36% |
| India.com Sites | 3,584 | 7,188 | 33% |
| The Indian Express Group | 1,606 | 3,492 | 32% |
| The Hindu Group | 1,741 | 4,201 | 29% |
*Based on News/Information properties with at least 1 million visitors.
*Source: comScore