MUMBAI: The number of cable and satellite (C&S) homes in India has increased 26 per cent to 66.54 million, according to the latest Indian Readership Survey (IRS) report.

Urban India has 39.21 million C&S homes, growing by 20.67 per cent. There are 27.33 million C&S homes in rural India, an increase of 25.26 per cent from the prior round of survey by IRS.

The study covers from July 2007 to June 2008, on a sample size of 254,913 individuals. The study was done by Media Research Users Council (MRUC) and Hansa Research.

According to IRS Round 1 (R1) survey, conducted between January to December 2006), there were 52.92 million homes.

The C&S penetration is highest in Tamil Nadu (10.33 million), followed by Andhra Pradesh (9.84 million) and Maharashtra (8.41 million). West Bengal has 4.6 million C&S homes while Delhi (and urban environ) reaches to 3.22 million households. Cable and satellite penetration is lowest in Jammu Kashmir (131,000 homes).

The total number of TV homes (one TV set) in India has grown from 90.69 million to 100.38 million. In the urban areas, the number of TV homes has increased to 48.98 million (from 45.04 million) while in the rural areas it has touched 51.39 million (from 45.65 million).

The number of colour TV sets has increased from 55.40 million to 73.98 million.