According to ‘The State of the Media Democracy Survey – India’, commissioned by Deloitte, Internet traffic in India is still majorly driven by watching an advertisement in newspapers, with even billboards scoring a high percentage. Commissioned by Deloitte and fielded by an independent research firm, the survey employed an online methodology among 2006 consumers across all geographies and age groups.

The vast majority of consumers continue to read magazines, despite access to the same/similar content online. The survey provides a glimpse on how consumers between the ages of 14 and 75 are interacting with media, entertainment, advertising and information—and what their preferences might be in  the future.  The age buckets include Millennials (Trailing Millennials - 14-22 years; Leading Millennials - 23-28 years); Generation X - 29-45 years; Boomers - 46-64 years; Matures - 65-75 years.

"The majority of consumers anticipate that the role of the Internet will continue to play an increasing role in movie/ television content viewing.  Consumers perceive using the Internet as their most favorite media source, along with Television," stated the survey.

The survey further says that a large majority of consumers, 72% on an average, are using search engines on a daily basis. This has been an amazing change as compared to the results of the 2009 Survey where only 17% used search engines. Other top activities include emailing (60%) and instant messaging with friends/family (58%).  Email is still the most commonly used format for sharing content with others but is particularly low among Millennials, as  sharing via social network is their preferred medium.

Consumers are actively using the Internet to learn of new products, decide which to buy, and importantly, which not to buy.  Millennials are most actively using the Internet to recommend products to others. The majority of consumers have used a computer to make a purchase within the past year, with the smartphone fast catching up.

Speaking about subscriptions, despite steady increases in the usage and preference for online/streaming sources of content, the vast majority of consumers have no plans to cancel their cable/satellite/fiber service anytime soon. Other area of subscription is PC gaming and mobile phone service. More than one third of Millennials (36%) purchase a PC gaming subscription

The survey further points out that with the advancement of technology and internet, conversations about social networking sites and websites have gained tremendously as compared to the 2009 survey where the range was 3-4% as compared to 45-47% now.