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Tag: BARC India

  • ‘Common standard’ good to measure ‘unbundled’ viewership & ads cost-effectiveness: EKAM

    MUMBAI: BARC India has announced the phased roll-out of its much-awaited digital measurement service. 

    EKAM Pulse will measure video ad campaigns and will be the first digital offering to be rolled out by BARC India. EKAM Beam, the next product lined up for release, will measure linear broadcast that is viewed on a Digital device. EKAM Stream, will measure both non-linear and pure play digital video content. BARCIndia will also provide industry with EKAM Ad-Scan – which will be a global first-of-its-kind product. 

    EKAM Integra – will help industry with common, robust and independent audience numbers that will give more accurate incremental reach figures. To do this,BARC India’s TV data will be tied with Digital Video data with the help of Single-Source and Digital Booster panels on top of the census measurement and big data.

    www.indiantelevision.com spoke to a cross-section of the industry on the new scale. Sony Pictures Networks India EVP and Head – Digital Business Uday Sodhi, and Dekkho co-founder Tanay Desai both find the proposed new system interesting. 

    Speaking on the announcement, Sodhi said, “While digital advertising spends in India have witnessed exponential growth over the past couple of years, measuring the cost-effectiveness of video advertisements across TV and digital properties has been one of the biggest pain points for brands in India. The launch of EKAM by BARC India comes as a very welcome development in such a scenario. Not only will it allow advertisers to analyze quantifiable differences in video ad impressions, but will also allow them to see unique and de-duplicated reach and frequency across multiple platforms to accurately ascertain the ROI. It will enable fairer pricing for both advertisers and publishers, and will allow for incremental ad revenues for platforms which provide the maximum consumer reach and impressions. Looking forward to the market launch of the EKAM suite of products and the disruption it will bring in the digital ad industry.”

    On the launch of the BARC digital measurement tool, Zee Entertainment Z5 Business head of digital – India Archana Anand said:

    “This is a very positive development, not just for the OTT segment but for the media industry at large. Given the pace at which the digital entertainment industry is growing, it is becoming more and more critical to have a standardized tool for measurement. A common currency for digital measurement  will allow OTT players to benchmark their performance better across standardized metrics and catalyse overall growth of the industry. This will also help broadcasters get a holistic and more integrated analysis of their viewership across broadcast and digital media, enabling them to feel a greater sense of ownership rather than feeling that they are losing out to digital.“

    Viacom18 digital venture’s COO Gaurav Gandhi: said While digital video services are all fully measurable, there is no common industry measurement nor is there common standard for things like viewability.

    Having a common industry measurement will help all industry stakeholders. It will be a big boost to the fast growing digital video business to realize fair values for audience delivered and help the agencies to plan across TV and digital video better (as well as across various digital video services) – as they will now be able to implement true cross media plans. It will also give more confidence to the advertisers that their audience deliveries are backed by a common industry validated source.”

    Dekkho co-founder Tanay Desai replied to indiantelevision.com queries:

    Was it eagerly awaited? How do you see it?

    Tanay Desai: BARC ‘s Ekam measurement system was eagerly awaited given the lack of transparency in Indian digital media. Today, advertisers on mainstream platforms are often unaware about their exact spends, resulting into 60% inaccuracy in reporting at times. The common denominator for measurement will be challenging to implement — in terms of defining what makes a view, along with specialised metrics for mobile and web for demographic measurement.

    Which are the other methods you have been using?

    Tanay Desai: In-house analytics along with trusted and verified third party vendors to track activity on video, channel and page level. Metrics include engagement, source of session, demographic and geographic data. Dekkho allows advertisers to associate with individual videos, channels and pages of content unlike a fully automated/programmatic allocation system. This ensures brand safety and correct targeting while optimising use of media spends for brands aiming for specific audiences.

    How would it give a fillip to the ecosystem?

    Tanay Desai: OTTs that belong to production houses often sell inventory on a bundled basis. i.e. – TV + digital. This results into little transparency regarding actual views on digital. With the new system in place, digital viewership measurement will be isolated from TV be it a production house backed OTT or an independent aggregator. On the other hand, OTT players themselves will command higher CPMs through superior audience targeting. Media agencies and buyers will have relative knowledge i.e. – compare one OTT’s offering with its peers while spending on behalf of clients.

  • BARC EKAM: Learning online behaviour & ROI from specific campaigns will be easier, industry says

    MUMBAI: BARC India has announced the phased roll-out of its much-awaited digital measurement service. The digital products will be launched under the brand name EKAM (Sanskrit for “One”). The EKAM suite of products will include: EKAM Pulse, EKAM Beam, EKAM Stream, EKAM Ad-Scan and EKAM Integra.

    EKAM Pulse will measure video ad campaigns and will be the first digital offering to be rolled out by BARC India. EKAM Beam, the next product lined up for release, will measure linear broadcast that is viewed on a Digital device. EKAM Stream, will measure both non-linear and pure play digital video content. BARCIndia will also provide industry with EKAM Ad-Scan – which will be a global first-of-its-kind product.

    EKAM Integra – will help industry with common, robust and independent audience numbers that will give more accurate incremental reach figures. To do this,BARC India’s TV data will be tied with Digital Video data with the help of Single-Source and Digital Booster panels on top of the census measurement and big data.

    www.indiantelevision.com spoke to a cross-section of the industry on the new yardstick. Here are the views of Spuul Global CEO Subin Subaiah and Vertoz CEO Ashish Shah.

    Was it eagerly awaited? How do you see it?

    Subin: Its early days , but here are my thoughts. We’re a media – tech company, and any innovations with regards to technology are always welcome. We have been looking forward to the introduction of a tool that would be a standard in measuring viewership and consumption, since currently different service providers have their own methods of measurement, and everyone’s parameters for a successful campaign are defined differently.

    Which are the other methods you have been using?

    Subin: Currently, we use tools developed internally by our data and R&D teams. It’s been a foolproof system so far, and we rely heavily on this when we schedule our content and advertisements. Having said that, we’re looking forward to standardise the way online impressions are measured.

    How would BARC’s EKAM help? What would be you suggestions?

    Subin: We see EKAM creating a standard of sorts, especially when service providers are in the midst of negotiations with regards to content, or even advertising real estate. We know the value of our content, the value of our real estate, and we would like to know whether the placement of advertisements affect overall viewership or not, and how, and this will help advertisers get on board too. If the parameters are the same across the industry, it leaves no room for doubt with regards to value of real estate, or advertising malpractices.

    How would it give a fillip to the ecosystem?

    Subin: The most important, and most challenging aspect of our business today is knowing our consumer. There is always so much that we do not know about the person we’re trying to provide entertainment for. With EKAM coming in, learning the habits, online behaviour, and other viewership trends of our consumers will become far easier, thereby helping us create a better, more user friendly product, one that the consumer has been looking for.

    Leading programmatic company Vertoz founder & CEO Ashish Shah says: Since 2015, consumption of video content has increased tenfold. This year internet is being consumed maximum for online videos, news, live streaming shows & events, etc. Advertisers are leveraging this change in user behavior to increase brand awareness and brand engagement. As the internet has become much faster compared to a decade ago, advertisers are rolling out video ads more and surprisingly consumers/users are responding positively to these ads by engaging more with these ads compared to image display ads. Video display ads, in-video ads and other engaging video ad formats are very popular among advertisers as CTR and engagement rate is high.

    Current issue – The vital factor of any video advertising campaign is granular reporting. Almost all video advertising platforms give in-depth reports like number of video views, geos, average video watched time, video percentage watch, etc. Sometimes it is difficult to manage multiple platforms as all platforms might be targeting similar audience set, but as a marketer, there is no way to find out or know who has seen the ad from which platform as there is no provision to sync all these platforms together. A major issue for marketers is not online video platforms, but television. Marketers spend 15 to 20 times more on television ads as it is a main ATL medium to reach large audiences at a much lesser time.

    A number of video broadcasting companies are focusing on their platform and audience but EKAM by BARC will help significantly in the growth of the video industry as it focuses on measuring the industrywide trends and industry-specific needs.

    EKAM by BARC will help to measure linear broadcast as well as non-linear broadcast. The suite of products will help marketers to calculate the ROI from specific video campaigns as both linear and non-linear video broadcasting will be measurable now. It will help, not only advertisers but also video content creators to understand the success of their video content. This platform can give insights about audience, geo, reach and frequency which will be a great deal for publisher/content providers.

  • BARC India to solve digital puzzle with ‘EKAM’

    MUMBAI: BARC India today announced the phased roll-out of its much-awaited digital measurement service along with the brand name and logo of its digital measurement products. The digital products will be launched under the brand name EKAM (Sanskrit for “One”). The logo of EKAM draws inspiration from the four colors (Red, Blue, Yellow and Green) as BARC India. The branding highlights BARC India’s commitment to provide industry with a single platform for all measurement products, across TV and Digital.

    The EKAM suite of products will include: EKAM Pulse, EKAM Beam, EKAM Stream, EKAM Ad-Scan and EKAM Integra.

    EKAM Pulse will measure video ad campaigns and will be the first digital offering to be rolled out by BARC India. EKAM Beam, the next product lined up for release, will measure linear broadcast that is viewed on a Digital device . EKAM Stream, will measure both non-linear and pure play digital video content. BARC India will also provide industry with EKAM Ad-Scan – which will be a global first-of-its-kind product. It will give an overview of digital ads in India, look at where the advertising money is being spent and which sectors are producing more digital ads. The final product in this suite – EKAM Integra – will help industry with common, robust and independent audience numbers that will give more accurate incremental reach figures. To do this, BARC India’s TV data will be tied with Digital Video data with the help of Single-Source and Digital Booster panels on top of the census measurement and big data.

    Advertisers in digital space face several issues today. These include: dependency on publishers/platforms for data, lack of quantifiable differences in impressions, inability to see unique and de-duplicated reach & frequency across publishers/platforms and lack of knowledge on ROI, among others.

    BARC India, as a Joint Industry Company, has been studying the problems and has developed the EKAM suite of products based on industry-specific needs. By providing unique Reach and Frequency across devices de-duplicated by Brand, Campaign, Site or Placement, the EKAM solutions will allow analysis and comparison of different platforms and their offerings. With a Single-Source Panel, large TV and Digital Booster panels, Census level impressions and Big Data on Digital side, EKAM will offer a much more robust and accurate ability to show key metrics like incremental reach.

    “We are happy to announce the launch of the EKAM, our digital offering. The ecosystem needs Measurement of both Video Ads and Content, whatever the pipe and device maybe. As the brand name suggests, BARC India is working towards its goal of integrating TV and Digital measurement. Our EKAM suite of products will be rolled out over the next 18-24 months. It will provide the industry with independent third party measurement, verification of audience and eventually viewability of video ads and content,” said Partho Dasgupta, CEO, BARC India.

  • BARC India formally sets up independent council to probe viewership malpractices complaints

    MUMBAI: BARC India has set up an independent disciplinary council to further strengthen transparency and credibility of its measurement system.

    The six-member BARC India Disciplinary Council (BDC) will investigate and address complaints related to viewership malpractices and tampering of BARC India’s measurement system.

    The BDC will be headed by Punjab & Haryana High Court’s former chief justice Mukul Mudgal and has former Mumbai police commissioner and DGP Maharashtra D Shivanandan and independent technical expert Paritosh Joshi as its members. Viacom18 group general counsel and company secretary Sujeet Jain, GroupM South Asia CEO CVL Srinivas and GCPL AVP corporate legal Pankaj Phadnis are the other members, representing the three stakeholder bodies – IBF, AAAI and ISA.

    BARC India has already set up a vigilance team to probe viewership malpractices complaints, as well as investigate abnormal viewership data recorded from BARC India panel households. The new council will independently examine vigilance team reports, and where culpability is clearly established, it will be empowered to order punitive action appropriate to level of offence. The action could range from written warning and a fine for first level offence, to suspension of viewership data for three months, leading up to termination of BARC India’s contract with the subscriber.

    Alongside setting up of the high-level BDC, BARC India has re-drafted terms of the contract it signs with its subscribers. This has been done to address limitations in the current End User License Agreements (EULA) and strengthen legal provisions that will allow the BDC to act against viewership malpractices. The updated EULA will soon be circulated to all BARC India subscribers, and they would be required to sign them.

    “The BDC is a step forward in our commitment to ensuring transparency, and eradicating this long existing malpractice of panel tampering. We hope to build further credibility in our processes and systems under guidance of Justice Mudgal. The independent council will also benefit from the advice of a seasoned law enforcement expert like Shivanandan, and the continued support of industry stakeholders,” said BARC India CEO Partho Dasgupta.

  • FICCI-KPMG report: Rural India fuels digital consumption; FTA channels gain prominence

    MUMBAI: The ‘Bharat’ story strengthened with expansion of rural measurement in TV and 4G data price wars deepened digital consumption, which were spurred further by mobile Internet and smartphone penetration. While print and films segments were supported by growing demand from the regional markets, demonization affected advertising revenues even as consolidation in the Indian media and entertainment (M&E) industry gained momentum.

    These were amongst some of the key highlights of year 2016 as enumerated in the FICCI-KPMG Media & Entertainment Industry Report 2017 unveiled yesterday at FICCI Frames 2017.

    Amongst the other highlights were roll out of 4G services, government and private initiatives around public Wi-Fi, greater emphasis on broadband rollout by MSOs and wide ranging impact of government policies and initiatives that had inflicted some short-to-medium term damage (demonization and confusion over GST implementation) on the industry as growth in annual advertising spends got slashed by about 1.5-2.5 per cent. However the report said that the industry is expected to be a net beneficiary of GST, primarily due to availability of input credits across the board and subsuming of entertainment tax within the GST.

    According to the report, the Indian media and entertainment industry in 2016 was able to sustain a healthy growth on the back of strong economic fundamentals and steady growth in domestic consumption, coupled with growing contribution of rural markets across key segments.  These factors aided the industry to grow at 9.1 per cent on the back of advertising growth of 11.2 per cent, despite demonetization shaving off 150 to 250 basis points in terms of growth across all sub-segments at the end of the year.

    The big story in 2016 has been the evolution of FTA channels after expansion by BARC India of rural measurement in the television segment, coupled with the impact of the 4G rollout and the resulting price wars. Both these factors have resulted in media consumption penetrating deeper into India, resulting in a realignment of strategy by media companies and advertisers alike.

    Compared to 2016, the industry is projected to grow at a faster pace of 14 per cent over the period of 2017-21 with advertising revenues expected to increase at a CAGR of 15.3 per cent. The year 2017 is likely to witness a marginally slower rate of 13.1 per cent as the economy recovers from the lingering effects of demonetization and initial uncertainties arising from GST implementation.

    Commenting on the industry’s performance and way forward, FICCI M&E Committee chairman and chairman & CEO of Star India Uday Shankar said, “The industry has gulped down the bitter pill of demonetization trusting its long-term benefits and yet is set to bounce back to a steady growth, thanks to strong fundamentals.”

    He added that building solid infrastructure and continued government support will help the industry reach the “tremendous potential” it holds for employment and creating socio-economic value for the country, while a commitment towards a “quick transition to digitization” will ensure growth for all stakeholders.

    Girish Menon, director, media and entertainment, KPMG India, stated that 2016 was a “mixed bag” for the industry with digital media making its way to the centre stage rapidly from being just an additional medium. While it is compelling existing players to rethink their business models, he added, “The long-term factors driving the future growth are expected to remain positive with growing rural demand, increasing digital access and consumption and the expected culmination of the digitisation process of television distribution over the next two to three years.”

    Some of the key highlights of the FICCI-KPMG report are as follows:

    Television

    The TV industry clocked a slower growth in 2016 at 8.5 per cent, attributed to tepid growth of 7 per cent in subscription revenues and a lower than estimated 11 per cent growth in advertising revenues.

    A key theme in 2016 was the emergence of FTA channels as a key focus area following the expansion in rural measurement by BARC India and the resultant increased interest by both broadcasters and advertisers. Additionally, strong performance of sports properties and increased spending for the launch of 4G by telecom operators helped alleviate some of the pressure. The industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 14.7 per cent over the next five years with advertising and subscription revenues projected to grow at 14.4 per cent and 14.8 per cent, respectively.

    The projections remain robust due to strong economic fundamentals, rising domestic consumption and growing contribution of rural markets, coupled with the delayed but eventual completion of digitization rollout.

    Digital advertising

    Continuing to ride on a high growth trajectory with a 28 per cent growth in 2016, digital advertising has captured 15 per cent share in the overall advertising revenues, with a minor hiccup due to demonetization. 4G rollouts and the resultant data price wars are providing further impetus to the growth as digital consumption and habits are becoming more mainstream. It is projected to grow at a CAGR of 31 per cent to reach INR 294.5 billion by 2021, contributing 27.3 per cent to the total advertising revenues. Advancement in infrastructure, evolving audience measurement technology, leading to better content and lowering data costs, will drive user habits towards greater digital consumption, driving tremendous growth for the industry.

    Animation and Visual Effects (VFX)

    The industry grew at 16.4 per cent, driven majorly by a 31 per cent growth in VFX due to increase in outsourcing work, growing use of VFX in domestic film productions and increase in demand for domestic animated content on television. The industry is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 17.2 per cent over 2017–21.

    Out of Home (OOH)

    The industry registered a slowdown in growth rate at 7 per cent majorly due to adverse impact of demonetization. OOH is projected to grow at a CAGR of 11.8 per cent primarily driven by development of regional airports, privatisation of railway stations, growth in smart cities, setting up of business and industrial centers and growing focus on digital OOH.

    Radio

    Radio recorded a 14.6 per cent growth led by volume enhancements in smaller cities, partial roll out of batch 1 stations and a marginal increase in effective advertising rates. However, weak uptake in batch 2 auctions of FM radio Phase 3 and delays in the rollout of majority of batch 1 stations, coupled with adverse impact of demonetization, dampened the overall sentiment. Nevertheless, it is expected to be the fastest growing amongst the traditional mediums at a CAGR of 16.1 per cent, arising from operationalisation of new stations in both existing and new cities, introduction of new genres and radio transitioning into a reach medium.

    Print

    The revenue growth rates of print continued to witness a slowdown at 7 per cent in 2016, as English newspapers remained under pressure. Regional language papers demonstrated strong growth, but were adversely affected by demonetization given their high dependence on local advertisers. Print is expected to grow at 7.3 per cent, largely driven by continued growth in readership in Indian languages markets and advertisers’ confidence in the medium, especially in the tier II and tier-III cities. Rise in digital content consumption poses a long-term risk to the industry.

    Films

    Films grew at a crawling pace of 3 per cent in 2016. The segment was impacted by decline in core revenue streams of domestic theatricals and satellite rights, augmented by poor box-office performance of Bollywood and Tamil films. Expansion of overseas markets, increase of depth in regional content and rise in acquisitions of digital content by over-the-top platforms are expected to be the future growth drivers that would help the segment bounce back at a forecasted CAGR of 7.7 per cent. However, factors such as dwindling screen count and inconsistent content quality could prove to be limiting factors.

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  • BARC India in talks with DTH ops, MSOs for RPD to boost robustness

    NEW DELHI: India’s incumbent audience measurement organization Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) is in talks with DTH operators and MSOs for return path data (RPD) via their respective digital set-top boxes at customer premises to augment the robustness of viewership vital stats it dishes out.

    What does this mean?  It entails capturing passive data collection of household viewership from digital cable and DTH homes via existing set-top-boxes (STBs). This would therefore enable measurement based on a larger sample.

    Broadcast industry sources while confirming that talks are on between BARC India and various DTH operators for additional data that can be generated from non-BARC meters, added that the findings can help almost all stakeholders in the media to further fine-tune their strategies regarding consumer targeting. According to the buzz, talks are on with the likes of Airtel DTH, Sun DTH, Hathway, Tata Sky and DEN among others.

    The proposal on RPD is in addition to moves that BARC India has been making over the last six months to give more credibility and robustness to its data as also insulate itself from allegations of hacking and other malpractices. The organization, in this regard, is also proposing to revamp its Ethics Committee into a Disciplinary Committee that will have semi-judicial powers under a retired court judge.

    TV viewership in India is monitored and measured on the basis of 20,000 BARC India panel homes — that is, homes where it has its BAR-o-Meters installed. BARC is committed to raise that number every year by 10K to reach a total panel of 50,000 homes. However, Indian media industry sources also highlighted the issue whether Indian the eco-system can support an audience panel size larger than what has been planned for as any additional data generated via BARC India and non-BARC boxes would entail a financial cost, which would have to be borne, at the end of the day, by the industry players.

    RPD would substantially increase the sampled base for BARC India, helping further improve accuracy of its data. A larger sample will also minimize effect of any skews in sampling and make tampering difficult. Additional data would also help in reporting viewership of niche channels, apart from helping the measurement organization in reporting VoD, OTT, time shifted viewing and HD channels. Stats regarding smaller geographic regions and split beams of TV channels too would become possible.
    Such tie-ups will also help BARC India’s DTH/cable partners gain insights into TV viewing within their subscriber base in terms of linear TV, VoD and interactive services. Such data also likely to help them understand utilization of content packs and guide the pricing and packaging of services of platform operators.

    Meanwhile, RPD has been employed by data collectors in more developed and matured TV markets like the US, the UK, Australia and also in some parts of Asia for quite some time now. “The ubiquity of digital set-top boxes means that many cable and satellite operators can collect subscriber behaviours as a by-product of their subscriber management processes. Specifically, return path data can provide an economical way for the cable and satellite businesses to enhance the currency TV audience measurement in a manner dedicated to the needs of the multi-channel television industry,” Hong Kong-headquartered Asian media industry organization CASBAA had stated in one of its recent reports on multi-channel advertising in APAC.

    The FCC’s proposal to open cable set-top boxes to competition had thrust them into the spotlight. In 2016 when the Obama-government nominated FCC chief had proposed to throw open the STBs to competition and third-party manufacturers, Multichannel News had reported that “the role that STBs play not as content portals, but as providers of return-path data (RPD)” too is important.

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  • Comment: BARC India’s move to plug loopholes sign of robustness & credibility

    That the Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC), the incumbent dominant audience measurement organisation in the country, has decided to reformat and revamp its existing Ethics Committee into a proposed disciplinary panel not only speaks volumes of the leadership within BARC India, but also sends a strong message to the media industry. The message is clear: we take acts of transgressions, alleged or proven, seriously and will not shy away from tweaking our regulations to uphold transparency and credibility of the data.

    In an industry that has a history of shying away from taking hard and difficult decisions, by and large, preferring to sacrifice transparency at the altar of status quo, the Sudhanshu Vats-led BARC’s board decision — as and when it’s formalised — to crank up its internal monitoring systems along with additional checks and balances is a welcome decision. Actually some observers have gone to the extent of saying that such a disciplinary committee, with powers to crack the whip, was necessary if vested interests within the Indian media industry were to be neutralised.

    What is BARC India proposing? Have a semi-judicial panel, headed by a retired judge and comprising BARC stakeholders’ representatives and outside experts, to take up complaints of malpractices and after hearing all sides, hand out a verdict — and punishments too, if necessary. Basically, take actions to discourage future transgressions.

    That such a move could have been gently nudged by the courts is a side story. It is a known fact that BARC India’s executive office, helmed by a seasoned media pro like Partho Dasgupta, has been sniffing out alleged attempts at malpractices to influence audience data for quite some time, but had taken visible action only in few cases. Most notable amongst such actions included suspension for four weeks the audience measurement data of three news channels last year.

    The very fact that the three suspended TV channels, two of them being news channels, moved court to get temporary reprieve and then two of them going ahead to slap BARC India with compensation demands for defamation just goes to show that in this game where everything’s fair in love and war, it’s always better to have robust checks and balances; even if at times people and companies are taken at face value.

    BARC India must have imagined that having an ethics committee with fairly broad guidelines will suffice. The main objective of this panel was to highlight it was there to “ensure fair and transparent ratings system, free of any influences and malpractices” with stakeholders (Indian Broadcasting Foundation, Indian Society of Advertisers, and Advertising Agencies Association of India), having a “zero tolerance policy towards any attempts to influence the ratings integrity.” The Ethics Committee, actually did have the power to “address concerns and investigate malpractices that may be adopted by any entity” regarding the ratings, but probably it lacked legal teeth, which got amplified when BARC India was hauled into court with its decisions to penalise errant subscribers challenged in Bombay High Court. 

    Framers of BARC India’s articles of association — unintentionally or intentionally — also put in an enabling clause that apart from the listed acts of transgressions and subsequent actions that the organisation could take, “there might be new ways identified from time to time, which would constitute as an attempt to infiltrate and manipulate the data.” An enabling clause to further make data measurement credible, in case under onslaught. 

    BARC India’s proposal to have a semi-judicial body headed by a retired High Court of Supreme Court judge to look into complaints of malpractices, adjudicate on such matters after listening to all the players involved and then hand out punishments, including financial, to the errant ones, once guilt is proven, will certainly go a long way in raising standards of transparency of data and credibility of BARC India, but it would not be a fool-proof mechanism. Especially when BARC is obliged, under government mandate, to annually raise by 10,000 its data measuring boxes or Bar-o-Meters. This year it’s slated to go up to 30k and ultimately to 50k.

    Industry organisations such as News Broadcasters Association and Indian Broadcasting Foundation do have such semi-judicial committees that look into the plaints relating to content and then hand out verdict — and punishments. The Advertising Standards Council of India also hauls up companies and ad agencies creating misleading ads. But there would always be the likes of Patanjali (in ASCI’s case) and the three TV channels suspended by BARC (whose data were subsequently resumed in deferment to court reprieves) who would try to circumvent existing norms. 

    However, that BARC India is evolving with the times and being pro-active instead of being reactive is a welcome sign. That most sections of the industry — handful of opponents, notwithstanding — are backing such BARC moves is also encouraging. Because at the end of the day, a robust audience data will only add to the good health of the industry that bets billions of dollars on such data in a market that’s by default is the biggest in APAC in terms of size (China is bigger, but non-Chinese media companies’ forays are restricted). Not to mention BARC’s attempts to cut down on litigation and subsequent outflow of money on legal cases.

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  • Digital measurement: Star leads the way, partners Zapr

    MUMBAI: Even as India’s only television rating body BARC India plans to get into digital measurement arena, Star India has made a major splash and taken a strategic minority stake in Zapr Media Labs, one of the largest media intelligence repositories and cross-device targeting platform which enables brands and media-owners to identify their offline media audience and re-target them on mobile and web.

    BARC India’s intent, through its planned foray into digital measurement, is to measure total unduplicated audience across all devices and platforms, measuring combined program impressions or advertisements regardless of where and how content/ad is being consumed, through a Single Source Panel. BARC had planned to provide a TV+ Digital viewership measurement service across the globe covering over 50 per cent of media spends between TV and digital. BARC was said to be in talks with an Israeli media technology company to customise for it tools for measurement, which is likely to be rolled out in phases from sometime in 2017 or early 2018.

    However, in what seems to be a march ahead of BARC India, Hotstar, one of India’s leading OTT platforms, and Zapr today announced a strategic partnership to drive the next wave of mobile audience analytics in India. The partnership is accompanied by a minority investment into Zapr from Star.

    For Hotstar, the partnership signals a clear intent to evolve from a media startup to a full-fledged technology and analytics company that shapes the next wave of mobile usage and advertising in India. With more than 60 million users in the month of January and a sharp uptick in user growth in the last few months, the platform already boasts of some of the highest daily engagement amongst its followers.

    In what is certain to be an exciting development for advertisers and agencies, the two companies will work together to create a deep understanding of mobile audiences that can be leveraged by brands to create personalized communication and offers. The two will collaborate to create deep audience segmentation and razor sharp targeting as a trail-blazing move for the mobile advertising ecosystem

    Zapr Media co-founder and CEO Sandipan Mondal informed www.indiantelevision.com, “Our partnership with Hotstar and Star reinforces the great response we’ve received from our industry partners, and we look forward to continuing to grow our relationship with the media and advertising industry.”

    Mondal added, “At Zapr Media Labs, we’re focused on building one of the world’s largest media consumption repositories and audience targeting platforms. Over the past few years, we’ve been working very closely with our partners across brands, agencies and broadcasters on deeper audience segmentation, sharper targeting and richer insights.”

    While access to the Internet has been exploding in India in the last few years, especially on the mobile screen, mobile marketing has been constrained till date by the lack of availability of platforms that marry deep user engagement and audience segmentation. While many brands have deployed significant amounts of money on mobile in the last few years, especially through banner and in stream display ads, marketers have been frustrated by the lack of brand building vehicles online that allow them to leverage deep audience analytics. In what is clearly a trail blazing move for digital marketing, the partnership could herald the emergence of more robust audience analytics and better accountability for results in the mobile marketing world.

    Hotstar CEO Ajit Mohan said, “In the transition from the broadcast world to the digital world, advertisers got a data bonanza but in the process had to give up the ability to engage consumers who are actually paying attention to what they are saying. Hotstar has the opportunity to build the world’s first platform on digital where consumers are engaged and immersed while at the same time delivering deep audience understanding that allows brands to talk to individuals rather than segments. We believe that we have a shot at creating the world’s premier truly personalised advertising service, which benefits both brands and consumers.”

    Mondal added, “We look forward to accelerating the pace of our research & development, growing our product portfolio and building a deeper and long lasting relationship with the larger media and advertising industry.”

    Zapr’s proprietary technology platform analyzes television viewership across 600+ channels in India providing targeted digital analytics and insight into offline consumption behaviour. Zapr has built an analytics platform that combines this proprietary understanding with enriched data that allows advertisers to use it for sharper audience targeting and analysis.

    The announcement is a big step in the direction of becoming the premier personalised advertising service.

  • TV viewership jumps by a whopping 18%: BARC India

    MUMBAI: BARC India has released its weekly viewership data on the basis of a revised Universe Estimate (UE), which is based on the results of Broadcast India Survey – the largest-ever research study undertaken to ascertain TV universe & television viewing habits in India.

    With this, BARC India has updated and aligned its TV universe with ground-level changes in demographics, TV ownership and connection type, language preference and changes in NCCS profiles etc.

    Fieldwork for the Broadcast India Survey was carried out over November 2015 to Feb 2016, and covered 3,00,000 homes across 590 Districts comprising of about 4300 Towns/Villages. All 1 Lakh+ towns were covered, while towns below 1 Lakh were selected by a Probability Proportional to Size (PPS) method.

    With the new UE, Week 8 has seen a significant increase of 18Per cent in Total TV viewership in the country. Total TV impressions have grown from 22.7 billion in week 7 to 26.7 billion impressions in week 8.

    “BI 2016 is one of the biggest survey’s done in the country so far. The TV universe in India is ever growing and changing and so is the profile and choice of a TV viewer. The last survey done was in 2013 and the last Census was in 2011. The consumer and viewer landscape is changing rapidly – with electrification, prosperity, changing modes of signal and digitisation. We wanted to reflect this change in viewership numbers and hence conducted our own Establishment Survey. This will help our subscribers and the eco system align their strategies for better targeting. The new reality is TV viewership is rapidly growing and how,” said BARC India CEO Partho Dasgupta.

    The study also highlights the fact that TV HHs have grown faster in NCCS B and C, thus increasing the share of the middle class. While NCCS A has dropped from 22 per cent to 21 per cent , NCCS B and C have gone up from 24 per cent to 27 Per cent and 31 Per cent to 32 Per cent respectively. NCCS D/E on the other hand has de-grown from 23 per cent to 20 per cent . These trends are in line with fragmentation of family sizes (leading to lower average family sizes) and rising economic growth and rising prosperity. It also shows that India has more nuclear families without elders than ever before, and it is also the dominant family group among TV owning homes. While composition of joint families in the universe has come down from 26 per cent to 22 per cent, nuclear families with elders has grown from 53 per cent to 58 per cent .

    Some key changes have been seen in the BI study like electrification, migration, digitisation, rise in smaller and nuclear family culture, increase in middle class, inclusion of rural markets and single TV households which has an impact on TV viewership behaviour.

    BI-2016, the report based on the survey, contains not just an updated count and composition of TV homes across urban and rural India, but also offers data and insights that would be of immense value to marketers and advertisers. It contains granular data and information on media consumption habits of Indians, as well as select durable ownership and packaged goods purchase profiles. It is an updated database of Indian consumer behaviour.

  • Total TV universe up to 183 mn, rate of rural growth higher than urban: BARC survey

    NEW DELHI: Okay it’s out and the data does reflect that television is thriving in India and growing. According to the latest BARC India figures, the all-India TV universe has increased to 183 million from the earlier collated figure of 154 million with the growth in rural audience showing a quantum jump signifying that upswing is coming from non-urban areas.

    The data highlights that while the total urban TV universe stood at 84,414 (in ‘000) in 2017, the comparative rural figure is 98,639 (in ‘000), signifying that the rural segment has grown at a faster rate, which opens up whole new marketing options for broadcasters and advertisers. The comparative old figures as per BARC estimates in 2015 were 77544,000 (urban) vs. 75967,000 (rural).

    These data, part of the latest BARC India’s Broadcast India Survey 2017, shows that while the urban-rural audience mix was almost equal earlier, the rural segment has outpaced the urban as per latest figures in rate of growth.
    The new TV universe figures will be implemented from Week 8, 2017 by BARC India, though the latest audience data released by the measurement organisation pertaining to Week 6 adheres to the old figures of the total TV universe in India being 154 million.

    The data reiterates BARC’s recent reiterations that that since it started surveying rural audience, a whole new world has opened up for subscribers of the data, which, incidentally, also include government organisations apart from the traditional TV channels and advertising agencies.

    What are the few highlights of the latest BARCC India findings, which were surveyed over a four-month period from November 2015 to February 2016?

    First, the total TV universe has grown. Second, there has been a sizeable increase in audience in B and C category, signifying an upswing in general prosperity and purchasing power. Third, the rate of growth of rural and small towns is higher than their urban counterparts.

    With respect to the NCCS classification of a household (or BARC’s version of earlier classifications known as SEC), it is based on two main variables: education of the household’s chief wage earner, defined as the person who contributes the most to payment of household expenses and household ownership of 11 specific durable goods, which clearly catch the household’s worth. The 11 durables collectively owned by household members and considered in the NCCS classification of households in India are electricity connection, ceiling fan, LPG stove, two-wheeler, colour TV, refrigerator, washing machine, personal computer/laptop, car/jeep/van, aircon and agricultural land.
    As digital viewing proliferates, BARC India is readying itself to measure the digital world too and the data is
    expected to flow in sometime late 2017 or early 2018.

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    BARC India Households and Individuals Universe Estimate-2017