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With broadcasters deserting television ratings provider TAM Media Research Pvt. Ltd, its likely successor is gaining momentum, although any viewership measurement system that it can put in place will take at least another year to be ready, and perhaps twice as long.
Broadcast Audience Research Measurement (BARC), which aims to offer a new audience measurement system, is being set up by broadcasters, advertisers and media agencies.
For the past 15 years, annual advertising revenue worth Rs.14,000 crore has ridden on the data provided by TAM Media Research, a joint venture between Nielsen (India) Pvt. Ltd and Kantar Market Research.
BARC hired a chief executive officer last month and issued a request for proposals (RFPs) earlier this month from global research and technology companies seeking to participate in the venture.
“We are expecting to receive their bids by the end of next month,” said Partho Dasgupta, CEO, BARC. He’s barred by non-disclosure agreements from revealing the names of prospective bidders.
Media experts said that there are barely a dozen companies in the business worldwide that have the expertise to set up such a system. They include Ipsos, and ironically enough, Nielsen and Kantar.
A number of broadcasters have terminated their TAM subscriptions of late, complaining that the data didn’t adequately reflect viewership. For instance, Multi Screen Media Pvt. Ltd complained about lower-than-expected viewership for the Indian Premier League’s sixth edition.
The disaffection stems from channels being “annoyed” at inexplicable fluctuations in TAM ratings, Shailesh Shah, general secretary of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation, said in an earlier interview.
“If 650 million people were watching TV two years ago, 800 million are watching today. And all of this growth is coming from cable. Even if I account for viewership fragmentation, how can one justify a channel with a rating of 2.76 one week and 0 in the next week?” he said. “TAM has not made any concrete change in figuring out a way to make data more robust.”
BARC’s structure, operations and services are likely to be different from TAM’s, said Dasgupta. For a start, BARC is likely to use an estimated sample size of 21,000 homes compared with TAM’s 9,602 meters. It will also monitor multiple screens in a household unlike TAM, which focuses on the TV screen. TAM declined to comment on BARC’s plans and the way it will be distinct from TAM.
Dasgupta said BARC will measure broadcasting consumed via televisions, laptops, tablets and mobiles.
“BARC will endeavour to cover all broadcasting modes, be it terrestrial, cable and satellite, DTH (direct to home)… or other developing and new platforms including newer modes of viewing. This study will be platform agnostic,” he said.
Paritosh Joshi, a former Star India executive and member of BARC’s technical committee, said: “The notion of India as a nation of single TV households is no longer relevant. Today, not only are there multiple TVs but multiple screens as well where broadcasting is being consumed. BARC will report that.”
Shashi Sinha, CEO of media agency Lodestar UM and head of the technical committee at BARC, said the likely 21,000 meter sample size could rise “after two-three years”.
This number will be based on the findings of an establishment survey currently under way.
The survey, according to Dasgupta is “a cross-sectional study of television penetration (rural and urban), viewership habits (of both terrestrial and satellite delivered channels over analogue as well as digital delivery modes) and demographic taxonomy of viewers. The study becomes the basis of designing the rating panel.”
To be sure, BARC will use the same establishment survey that is currently being conducted by Nielsen for the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) on behalf of the Media Research Users Council (MRUC). IRS is the quarterly study of Indian print media readership.
That survey is a comprehensive one covering 250,000 people and there was no need to duplicate such costly research, Joshi said.
TAM conducts its own establishment survey every year in collaboration with Nielsen and IMRB.
Dasgupta said BARC would define its ratings panel on the basis of the establishment survey to be concluded later this year. That, in turn, would help the body decide on the technology required to gather and update viewership data automatically.
Media experts said that structurally BARC may be better off than TAM, which is a vendor-owned and vendor-managed venture. It was initially advised by a joint industry body of advertisers, agencies and broadcasters but that stopped being active a decade ago, according to executives who didn’t want to be named.
“Being vendor-led and vendor-managed leads to problems linked to the design of the study itself, the priority markets and back checks among other things,” said Joshi.
On the other hand, BARC is a joint industry body set up by the three key stakeholders in television audience measurement— broadcasters, advertisers and advertising and media agencies.
Their respective apex bodies—the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) and the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI)—represent the three industries.
“The three-way alliance will ensure that the sizeable resources, financial as well as intellectual, required to mount such a massive, continuously running initiative are made available within a robust, transparent and accountable governance framework,” said Dasgupta.
BARC, which is a non-profit organisation under Section 25 of the Companies Act, also plans to have greater clarity about reporting errors.
“For all statistics-based studies, it is critical to spell out relative errors for its users, which TAM did not do. BARC will report the level of errors,” said Joshi.
IBF’s Shah said BARC will also ensure that the diversity of Indian audiences is captured, unlike the TAM system.
“This is not to blame TAM, but the data was more focused on the Hindi heartland,” he said. “The regional languages market nuances did not come through.”
Still, it will be difficult to guarantee that the new data will be free of error, although Dasgupta said BARC was working toward that end by, among other things, automating the process as much as possible.
Dasgupta said that two different RFPs have been issued. One seeks proposals on the research method, comprising universe estimation, proper sample selection, data capture and analysis, and making it available in a user-friendly format.
The other seeks proposals on the most optimal technology available—equipment that can capture data across various broadcast mechanisms and proper dissemination of information data to users, wherever they may be.
“BARC is exploring options of having cloud-based tailor-made data, which will help more users access data which is relevant to them and thus increase the user base significantly,” said Dasgupta.
A former member of the BARC board was, however, sceptical about the BARC project and said broadcasters need to seek a resolution rather than set up their own system.
“If you have problems with TAM, the best way would be for the joint industry body to sit with the research agency and resolve the matter,” said the person, who didn’t want to be named. “Even a child knows a bigger sample size is better. But are the broadcasters willing to pay TAM for a bigger sample?”
He said BARC’s one-year timeframe was unrealistic.
“When I was on the board, we calculated that from launching the request for proposals to having data up and running would take a minimum of two years.”
Alternative to TAM picks up momentum - Livemint
.
Broadcast Audience Research Measurement (BARC), which aims to offer a new audience measurement system, is being set up by broadcasters, advertisers and media agencies.
For the past 15 years, annual advertising revenue worth Rs.14,000 crore has ridden on the data provided by TAM Media Research, a joint venture between Nielsen (India) Pvt. Ltd and Kantar Market Research.
BARC hired a chief executive officer last month and issued a request for proposals (RFPs) earlier this month from global research and technology companies seeking to participate in the venture.
“We are expecting to receive their bids by the end of next month,” said Partho Dasgupta, CEO, BARC. He’s barred by non-disclosure agreements from revealing the names of prospective bidders.
Media experts said that there are barely a dozen companies in the business worldwide that have the expertise to set up such a system. They include Ipsos, and ironically enough, Nielsen and Kantar.
A number of broadcasters have terminated their TAM subscriptions of late, complaining that the data didn’t adequately reflect viewership. For instance, Multi Screen Media Pvt. Ltd complained about lower-than-expected viewership for the Indian Premier League’s sixth edition.
The disaffection stems from channels being “annoyed” at inexplicable fluctuations in TAM ratings, Shailesh Shah, general secretary of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation, said in an earlier interview.
“If 650 million people were watching TV two years ago, 800 million are watching today. And all of this growth is coming from cable. Even if I account for viewership fragmentation, how can one justify a channel with a rating of 2.76 one week and 0 in the next week?” he said. “TAM has not made any concrete change in figuring out a way to make data more robust.”
BARC’s structure, operations and services are likely to be different from TAM’s, said Dasgupta. For a start, BARC is likely to use an estimated sample size of 21,000 homes compared with TAM’s 9,602 meters. It will also monitor multiple screens in a household unlike TAM, which focuses on the TV screen. TAM declined to comment on BARC’s plans and the way it will be distinct from TAM.
Dasgupta said BARC will measure broadcasting consumed via televisions, laptops, tablets and mobiles.
“BARC will endeavour to cover all broadcasting modes, be it terrestrial, cable and satellite, DTH (direct to home)… or other developing and new platforms including newer modes of viewing. This study will be platform agnostic,” he said.
Paritosh Joshi, a former Star India executive and member of BARC’s technical committee, said: “The notion of India as a nation of single TV households is no longer relevant. Today, not only are there multiple TVs but multiple screens as well where broadcasting is being consumed. BARC will report that.”
Shashi Sinha, CEO of media agency Lodestar UM and head of the technical committee at BARC, said the likely 21,000 meter sample size could rise “after two-three years”.
This number will be based on the findings of an establishment survey currently under way.
The survey, according to Dasgupta is “a cross-sectional study of television penetration (rural and urban), viewership habits (of both terrestrial and satellite delivered channels over analogue as well as digital delivery modes) and demographic taxonomy of viewers. The study becomes the basis of designing the rating panel.”
To be sure, BARC will use the same establishment survey that is currently being conducted by Nielsen for the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) on behalf of the Media Research Users Council (MRUC). IRS is the quarterly study of Indian print media readership.
That survey is a comprehensive one covering 250,000 people and there was no need to duplicate such costly research, Joshi said.
TAM conducts its own establishment survey every year in collaboration with Nielsen and IMRB.
Dasgupta said BARC would define its ratings panel on the basis of the establishment survey to be concluded later this year. That, in turn, would help the body decide on the technology required to gather and update viewership data automatically.
Media experts said that structurally BARC may be better off than TAM, which is a vendor-owned and vendor-managed venture. It was initially advised by a joint industry body of advertisers, agencies and broadcasters but that stopped being active a decade ago, according to executives who didn’t want to be named.
“Being vendor-led and vendor-managed leads to problems linked to the design of the study itself, the priority markets and back checks among other things,” said Joshi.
On the other hand, BARC is a joint industry body set up by the three key stakeholders in television audience measurement— broadcasters, advertisers and advertising and media agencies.
Their respective apex bodies—the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) and the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI)—represent the three industries.
“The three-way alliance will ensure that the sizeable resources, financial as well as intellectual, required to mount such a massive, continuously running initiative are made available within a robust, transparent and accountable governance framework,” said Dasgupta.
BARC, which is a non-profit organisation under Section 25 of the Companies Act, also plans to have greater clarity about reporting errors.
“For all statistics-based studies, it is critical to spell out relative errors for its users, which TAM did not do. BARC will report the level of errors,” said Joshi.
IBF’s Shah said BARC will also ensure that the diversity of Indian audiences is captured, unlike the TAM system.
“This is not to blame TAM, but the data was more focused on the Hindi heartland,” he said. “The regional languages market nuances did not come through.”
Still, it will be difficult to guarantee that the new data will be free of error, although Dasgupta said BARC was working toward that end by, among other things, automating the process as much as possible.
Dasgupta said that two different RFPs have been issued. One seeks proposals on the research method, comprising universe estimation, proper sample selection, data capture and analysis, and making it available in a user-friendly format.
The other seeks proposals on the most optimal technology available—equipment that can capture data across various broadcast mechanisms and proper dissemination of information data to users, wherever they may be.
“BARC is exploring options of having cloud-based tailor-made data, which will help more users access data which is relevant to them and thus increase the user base significantly,” said Dasgupta.
A former member of the BARC board was, however, sceptical about the BARC project and said broadcasters need to seek a resolution rather than set up their own system.
“If you have problems with TAM, the best way would be for the joint industry body to sit with the research agency and resolve the matter,” said the person, who didn’t want to be named. “Even a child knows a bigger sample size is better. But are the broadcasters willing to pay TAM for a bigger sample?”
He said BARC’s one-year timeframe was unrealistic.
“When I was on the board, we calculated that from launching the request for proposals to having data up and running would take a minimum of two years.”
Alternative to TAM picks up momentum - Livemint
.
