The pattern is more pronounced where radio ownership is higher. Studies in Asia and in Latin America and the Caribbean indicate that more than half the women of reproductive age in urban and rural areas live in a household with a radio, in urban areas more than three quarters. In sub-Saharan Africa, urban radio ownership reaches similarly high levels although rural ownership can be much lower. Increasingly, in more parts of the world, rural and urban people alike are exposed to similar communications from similar sources. Television, video and films expose viewers to a common window on styles of life and behaviour, an impact increased by the supranational reach of the media.
Television is extremely popular where it is available.
Latin America and the Caribbean had 163, West Asia and Northern Africa 112, East Asia and the Pacific 44, South Asia 31 and sub-Saharan Africa 23. In the least developed countries the number was only 10 per 1,000. Television has been spreading at a very rapid pace over the last decade, around 20 per cent per year in developing countries overall. In Bangladesh, over 60 per cent of the married women of reproductive age in urban areas see television in some form at least once a week. Rural exposure to television was lower by far than radio, reaching only 12 per cent.