Many changes in spending habits can be expected as Indian consumers adjust to life in lockdown and at least one factor identified in a new survey is a surge in demand for traditional media, such as TV and newspapers.

According to Mumbai-based agency Enormous Brands, 43% of high-income households regard cable TV rather than OTT as their primary source of entertainment, and 13% have reactivated their DTH/cable subscription, Indian Television reported.

“Despite the popularity of OTT platforms, we’re seeing family entertainment make a comeback,” said Ajay Verma, managing partner at Enormous Brands, in comments to afaqs.

“Television used to be the ‘fireplace’ – where everyone would gather around and sit down to watch something. We’re seeing that emotion make a comeback, too, in this lock-down,” he added.

There’s also good news for newspaper publishers because about three-quarters (74%) of Indian consumers say they miss their daily newspaper and are waiting for the service to resume. And while 29% have moved to reading newspapers online, only 4% say would unsubscribe from hard copy versions.

These and other findings come from a survey Enormous Brands conducted between March 30 and April 22 across six cities – Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune and Ahmedabad – that involved almost 3,740 respondents.

Given people’s understandable need to be kept informed, the survey found that as much as two-thirds (64%) of TV viewing time is spent on news channels, with 43% of consumers believing that the news reports are unbiased.

Not surprisingly, there has been a significant uptick in the number of people who have turned to e-commerce and online shopping to get by, but the survey revealed an interesting finding that this trend also includes a sharp increase among older shoppers.

Adoption of e-commerce for groceries and other home essentials among those aged 55 to 65 has increased by as much as 47%, the survey found, adding that in the past month alone first-time users of internet banking among all generations increased by 28%.

Interestingly, the survey also revealed that COVID-19 appears to have triggered an upsurge of nationalist sentiment among Indian consumers.

It seems 42% believe there is an active and deliberate attempt by China to spread the disease across the world for economic gain and, as a consequence, nearly half (47%) of those surveyed said they would be willing to pay up to 25% more for Indian products over Chinese ones.

Sourced from Enormous Brands, Indian Television, afaqs; additional content by WARC staff