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Tag: BARC

  • Will work closely with IBF and ISA to meet BARC deadlines: Ambi

    Will work closely with IBF and ISA to meet BARC deadlines: Ambi

    An advertising person constantly strives to connect market research data to insights to come up with a winning campaign and who better to understand it than MG Parameswaran aka Ambi. The brain behind the transformation of Ulka Advertising into Draftfcb Ulka Group (now FCB Ulka), the former IIT-ian with a sharp wit and a way with words knows his subject at the back of his hand.

     

    The man, who has seven books to his credit in which he has penned down insights from his 35 year long working career in advertising, is the new president of Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI).

     

    The newly elected executive council will meet in next 10 days and as he takes charge for the year 2014-2015, Indiantelevision.com’s Meghna Sharma speaks to him on the key focus areas, awards and much more…

     

    Excerpts…

     

    What are the five things you will focus on as the new AAAI president?

     

    The new elected executive council will meet to deliberate on what should be the key initiatives, but from the top of my head, I think we need to move on the following points with speed:

     

    – AAAI will literally move to its new office in the next six months; this is a spacious office located mid-town. We will create facilities for our member agencies to use (for outstation agency members it can be a big boon).

     

    – AAAI will endeavour to work closely with IBF and ISA to ensure that the BARC deadlines are met and we have a world-class television measurement system in place soon.

     

    – AAAI will try to help member agencies face the challenges of the future; targeted seminars and workshop on the business of advertising will be a priority going forward; but first we will ascertain the demand for such programs.

     

    – Talent development at the grassroot level will be a priority; we will see if we can leverage the online medium to help reach top class training to smaller cities and towns of our country.

     

    – AAAI has played a vital role in the development of sister organisations; we will endeavour to build strong bridges to all the other industry organisations including ISA, IBF, INS, Ad Club, IAA, IMAI, Outdoor Association, Radio Association, Cinema Association etc.

     

    To sum it up, we will ensure that AAAI serves the purpose of all its member agencies, big and small, in big cities and in small cities and help them stay vibrant and profitable, play a more meaningful role in helping their clients and the society at large.

     

    In the next year, what will be the focus area – seminars or awards – for the organisation?

     

    Awards were never the be-all and end-all of the AAAI. Unfortunately, that gets the maximum media coverage. Many things that AAAI does, like helping member agencies collect outstanding amounts from clients or helping media organisations collect their rightful dues are not as exciting to write and read about. Further, many of these are really in the private domain. AAAI is an industry body set up the help ad agencies do their business better, serve clients better and do well. Towards this end AAAI has held workshops, created forums and also hosted award shows. We will continue to do all that.

     

    In the recent past, many objections have been raised regarding obscenity in advertisements. Do you think there is a need for stricter rules?

     

     All ads have to follow the norms laid down by society. AAAI was one of the founding partners of ASCI and I think ASCI, in the last few years has made its process a lot more efficient and effective. All the big advertisers have signed off that ASCI will have the last word. Similarly all media organisations have agreed to abide by the ASCI rulings.

     

    Obscenity can come at you from any category, undergarments, perfumes etc. If readers feel any specific ad needs to be pulled off they should complain to ASCI. The process is well laid out on its website.

     

     Having said that, let me reiterate, an ad has to be measured against what is prevalent in society at large. At one time no Hindi movie showed a man and a woman kissing. That has become a norm today, and some heroes / heroines are vying to set new records. The society is also changing rapidly enabled by the rampant spread of digital medium. So our standards for measuring ads should also become more flexible. What was obscene 10 years ago may not be seen as obscene today. One needs to factor in the variable that consumers are not morons; they do see ads with a tinted pair of spectacles, especially ads that promise miraculous results, like deos.

     

    Finally, it is ASCI’s turf to decide what they think is permissible and what is not.

     

    Also, how do you plan to get back the lost glory of Indian awards?

     

    Awards play a useful purpose to motivate young people to stay engaged in the advertising industry. There is nothing to beat the joy of receiving an award in front of your industry peers. AAAI will work closely with Ad Club to ensure that we have a transparent mechanism in the jury process. Efforts will be made to ensure all the key agencies participate in the Awards. Please remember the Abby Awards belongs to Ad Club and has a wonderful history backing it. That will not be allowed to fade away.

  • TAM expanding peoplemeter size: Kantar’s Eric Salama

    TAM expanding peoplemeter size: Kantar’s Eric Salama

    MUMBAI: For the past three months, the focus of the entire TV industry has been on the new industry-backed Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC). It was almost a given that the decade-old viewership ratings agency TAM Media Research would slip away into the night as the newbie had got the government’s and industry’s support.

     

    But TAM is not disappearing. It got some relief last week as the Delhi High Court adjourned to 26 August the hearing on its parent Kantar Media Research’s  suit against the government-declared regulation on cross holding patterns of TV ratings agencies.

     

    And unknown to many, TAM is working to comply with the other requirements of TV ratings agency guidelines to continue to exist. A long standing demand of industry and a crucial criterion requiring compliance is the minimum number of peoplemeters. And TAM apparently is coming up to speed on this.

     

    “We are continuing to increase the size of the panel but haven’t announced exact numbers and timings around it,” Kantar CEO Eric Salama told indiantelevision.com last week.

     

    According to the ‘policy guidelines for TV rating agencies,’ the minimum peoplemeter sample size has to be 20,000 homes. So Salama’s response to indiantelevision.com seems to imply that TAM will likely aim for that figure.

     

    TV rating agencies also have to apply for a licence before they can operate in India and there cannot be any cross holding between agencies and TV ratings agencies. The latter regulation is something that Kantar has challenged in the Delhi High Court and TAM can continue to be operational until the court pronounces its verdict.  But it has applied for a TV ratings agency licence to  the ministry of information & broadcasting. There is no word from the ministry on the same, as the guidelines don’t prescribe a deadline for the approval or disapproval of the licence.

     

    We reached out to but TAM, but none of its officials were available for comment at the time of filing this report.

     

    Industry however isn’t too concerned whether or not TAM increases it  people meter sample as it is BARC they are banking on and awaiting patiently. Says a senior executive from a news channel, “Who cares whether or not TAM is expanding its meters. Government is backing BARC.”

     

    Another broadcast CEO stated: “We don’t know what TAM is trying to achieve by increasing its sample size,” he said. “Are they trying to confuse the stakeholders or are they grandstanding?”

     

    Now the question is if TAM does scale up, and is not shut down by some quirk of fate: can the industry support two ratings agencies? In the past it has not been able to.  Intam was the first TV viewership monitoring service which was set up in 1994 by ORG-Marg. TAM, followed in 1998. But former was merged into TAM in 2001.  aMAP was set up in 2004; commenced operations in 2007, folded up in 2011.  TAM continued to hold ground, despite carping from industry.

     

    And now we are in a time where another rival has reared its head – BARC, which is set to roll out its ratings by end-2014. Will history be repeated or a new chapter be written?

  • BARC gets IRS data, to start installation of peoplemeters soon

    BARC gets IRS data, to start installation of peoplemeters soon

    MUMBAI: A fortnight ago, concerns were raised about India’s audience measurement system, Broadcast Audience Research Council’s (BARC), rolling out its operation on time.

     

    BARC’s chairman Punit Goenka had earlier said that due to delay in receiving the establishment data from Indian Readership Survey (IRS) there might be a delay in the roll out of the rating system in October, as scheduled earlier.

     

    As reported earlier by indiantelevision.com, the council had also set a deadline for the IRS to share the data with it. The council had then pointed out that since the matter wasn’t sub judice as the Bombay High Court had allowed media houses and agencies to use the IRS report 2013 for marketing and media planning purposes on the petition filed by HT Media (HTML), IRS cannot deny sharing any data.

     

    However, all such concerns can now be shoved under the carpet as IRS has shared the data required to start the roll out process. “We have got the IRS data,” says an industry source. But, this is just one part. Informs the source, “Installing peoplemeters will still take a month or so. Now that the data has come to us, we need to design actual panel, identify the households, recruit them, get approval from them for installing peoplemeters and only then can the installing of peoplemeters take place. All this will take a minimum of a month or so.”

     

    BARC has already installed test meters to check for any faults in the peoplemeters being manufactured. “We need to test the peoplemeters for several conditions like: power fluctuation, environment condition etc. So far the meters have been working properly,” he adds. When asked about the number of test meters installed, without revealing much he says, “It is in three digits.” 

     

    However according to another industry source who could not contain the excitement says that the installation of peoplemeters shouldn’t take more than a couple of weeks. “As soon as we sort out the process, the installations will start across the 22,000 households across the country in the first phase as the council had said earlier,” informs the source, while stating that the entire installation process will take up to six weeks. BARC will produce 25000 peoplemeters.

     

    “It’s that fast,” proudly boasts the source.

     

     

  • BARC selects Prime Focus Technologies for play-out monitoring service

    BARC selects Prime Focus Technologies for play-out monitoring service

    MUMBAI: Prime Focus Technologies (PFT), the technology subsidiary of Prime Focus, has announced that the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has contracted it to offer play-out monitoring service to power the audience measurement programs.

     

    PFT’s globally proven CLEAR Media ERP platform bolstered with next generation content identification technology and digital services will help automatically generate play-out monitoring reports on a daily basis.

     

    “It is a great honor to be selected by BARC, and we consider it equally a great responsibility towards the industry,” said Prime Focus Technologies founder & CEO Ramki Sankaranarayanan. “India has one of the largest TV ecosystems in the world and the audience measurement system ought to be highly credible. We look forward to working with BARC to help build India’s very own, trusted rating service.”

     

    “With PFT on board we are one step closer to our mission of indigenously building a television audience measurement system that is better than the best in the world,” said BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta. “PFT’s world class technology, deep understanding of Indian broadcast and advertising industry, and across the board relationships with broadcasters and advertisers as a neutral partner made them the perfect choice for this critical role.”

     

    Audience measurement data is the de facto currency for media industry, being widely used by all stakeholders for planning, pricing, selling and buying advertising inventory on the medium. PFT will offer a robust play-out monitoring service which will check the actual telecast of each channel, capture the content at every point in time, and help link it back to the rating piece of the audience measurement system.

     

    India has 154 million TV households making it the third largest TV market in the world, next only to China and the US. This will be the first fully digital play-out monitoring service employed directly by the Indian broadcast industry and is scheduled to commence operations in October 2014.

  • Difference of opinion within BARC on rollout date?

    Difference of opinion within BARC on rollout date?

    MUMBAI: The silver lining in the TV rating system in India might see dark clouds if Broadcast Audience Research Council’s (BARC) chairman Punit Goenka is to be believed.

     

    Goenka showed concerns on the time the new rating system will start operating. Earlier talking to indiantelevision.com, BARC tech committee chairman Shashi Sinha had stated that the new ratings system should be up and running by 1 October, 2014.

     

    “Everyone is aware of the issue with Indian Readership Survey (IRS) and unless that gets sorted how can we roll out our process,” said Goenka, when quizzed if the launch time for BARC was on schedule. “There would be a delay,” he added.

     

    A committee member, without commenting on Goenka’s concerns, said that the IRS issue is sub judice and hence cannot share data with BARC. “If data isn’t shared with us, how are we going to design the panel?” he questioned. However, he soon highlighted on the fact that the current issue is with the survey done for national publishers and it shouldn’t impact any survey/data needed for television.

     

    Whereas another source refuted any such delay and believes that though IRS has its own sets of problems, there shouldn’t be any issue with BARC. “BARC needs IRS for establishment data, but with minor internal adjustments, everything will fall in place and IRS issue shouldn’t create any material difference to the time-table,” he pin-pointed.

     

    Similarly, another source believes that there shouldn’t be any delay in the rating system to come in place. “Work is in process and in line with the date we had said earlier. And we are hopeful of reaching the due date without any hassle.”

     

    “Why think of a delay? Everything is on schedule,” said a highly placed industry source. “An eight to 10 days delay shouldn’t be called as a delay. A minor variation in the date shouldn’t be an issue,” he concluded.

     

    Early this year, in January, BARC had signed a contract with Médiamétrie for a 1+5 year term. The French audience measurement system will be providing the audio watermarking technology to BARC to monitor TV consumption through its 20,000 strong panel.

     

    The funding to put up the new system in place has been divided as follows: 60 per cent Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), 20 per cent ISA and 20 per cent Indian Advertisers Agencies Association of India (AAAI).

  • BARC could consider different ratings frequencies for different genres

    BARC could consider different ratings frequencies for different genres

    MUMBAI: The long tail gets an unfair deal – be it in television viewership ratings, print media readership surveys or radio audience research.  The long tail, in marketing, refers to the large number of products and services that are not consumed by the masses, like niche television channels and specialised publications.

     

    The small number of television channels or print publications that are consumed on a large scale always get more than their fair share in the audience or readership measurement systems.

     

    This was the general consensus at a panel discussion on “Measurement Miasma, TVTs, Readerships, Clicks and Such: The Great Love/Hate Epic” on the concluding day of the FICCI Frames 2014 on Friday.

     

    Not all measurement currencies can have the same frequencies, said Provocateur Advisory Principal Paritosh Joshi, who anchored the discussion. The results of measurement currencies are just data points.

     

    The need for different frequencies for measurement currencies was felt as different products have different consumption patterns.

     

    This prompted Entertainment Network India’s  Executive Director & CEO Prashant Panday suggest that the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) consider different frequencies for different genres of television channels.

     

    Broadcast Audience Research Council CEO Partho Dasgupta responded by saying that BARC may look at having different frequencies for different genres.

     

    So, when BARC launches its television ratings service towards the end of 2014, we could see only the ratings for larger genres like the general entertainment channels (GECs) being released on a weekly basis and for the niche television channels less frequently.

     

    “We are trying to go beyond” (what the TAM Media Research provides). We will have different kinds of products and different slices,” elaborated Dasgupta.

     

    HDFC Life Sr Executive VP Sanjay Tripathy said there was a problem with TAM ratings because the sample size was not appropriate.

     

    He said research may not always give the right results and the advertisers need to tell the broadcasters that the measurement data is just a reference point.

     

    Pandey told the audience that they had two researches on radio audience in Delhi and the audience size put out by the two researches was hugely divergent. One research said the audience in Delhi is forty lakh and the other said it is over one crore.

     

    He said in television, 95 per cent of the channels are small and not captured correctly and that advertisers should be demanding better currencies.

     

    Google India  Director, Agency Business, Punitha Arumugam said there is a need for external validation of the result of any measurement currency.

     

    The discussion veered around the futility of validating the process of a measurement currency and that the validation should be of the result of the measurement currency. The result of a measurement currency should be explainable with external data.

     

    One of the panelists said when BARC issues its first ratings, and Star Plus, the undisputed number one channel under the current ratings currency, does not turn out to be the number one, there could be criticism of the ratings results. Star which is a member of BARC may decide  to disagree.

     

    HDFC Life’s Tripathy said advertisers need some data to justicy. “We spend so much.”

     

    In early days of television there was just Doordarshan and then came Zee. It was easy to choose the channel to advertise on. Today there are more than 200 channels.

     

    Tripathy said, “Media habits have now fragmented. We will have to chop… We will try to reach the target audience in the cheapest way.”

     

    There is also the issue of who will invest in a measurement system that will give the best measurement results. Partho said the cost of a television currency is mainly split between the broadcasters and advertisers.

     

    The need for a measurement currency is felt by everyone in the entire value chain across television, print and radio. Everyone in the value chains need to share the costs of robust measurement systems.

  • Civolution to provide watermarking technology to BARC

    Civolution to provide watermarking technology to BARC

    MUMBAI: Civolution, a Netherlands-based provider of technology and solutions for identifying, managing and monetising content has announced that the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has contracted it to provide its watermarking technology to underpin one of the world’s largest audience measurement platforms.

     

    The announcement comes shortly after BARC chose the TV meter system of Mediametrie, the audience measurement and survey company for television, radio, cinema and the internet. The two companies will build the technology framework for audience measurement solution for BARC.

     

    BARC addresses a population of over 1 billion, of which over 600 million have access to television in some form. This will be the first fully digital audience measurement system employed directly by the Indian broadcasters, advertisers and ad agencies and is scheduled to commence operations towards the end of this year.

     

    The audience measurement system – which has already successfully been deployed by Mediametrie in multiple TV markets – relies on Civolution’s audio watermarking coding technology for automated content identification and integrates seamlessly into Mediametrie’s TV meter system for panellists’ equipment and panellists’ data processing. It provides broadcasters with a detailed analysis of their exposure to the public, whether by the number of households tuning in to the programme or the amount of time spent watching each piece of content.

     

    “India has one of the largest TV audiences in the world so it was critical for us to create an audience measurement system that is gold standard,” said BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta. “By leveraging Civolution and Mediametrie’s expertise in audience tracking, technology and analytics we can now study viewers’ TV habits in precise detail, enabling broadcasters and advertisers to implement efficient strategies to reach their target audience.”

     

    Civolution’s audio watermark is embedded in the TV’s sound track prior to broadcast. Upon airing, the content is then identified by Mediametrie’s TV meter, in real-time. In addition to granular measurement of the content being watched, the solution features support for catch-up TV. The technology provides cross-platform audience measurement and will enable mobile device measurement, triggering the creation of new services and the reduction of operating costs. In parallel, the same watermark infrastructure deployed by Indian broadcasters could be used to synchronize with great accuracy their own interactive second screen applications.

     

    ”With so many new ways of watching TV content in this multi-screen universe, precise audience measurement has become increasingly complex. Audience measurement services must now report more accurately and reliably, from a larger number of channels, delivered through a fast-changing and diverse mix of broadcast platforms, and consumed either in real time or time-shifted” said Civolution CEO Alex Terpstra.

     

    ”Through our close collaboration with Mediametrie, we have devised a powerful solution that provides accurate and reliable audience data that will allow BARC to help broadcasters plan, entertain and monetize their TV audiences,” added Civolution SVP Watermarking Solutions Jean Michel Masson.

     

    Mediametrie Director of Audiences Measurement Benoit Cassaigne added: ”We are very enthusiastic to embark on this project with Civolution and its watermarking technology, which is definitely the most powerful and error-free content detection technique available for TV audience measurement.  This means we are future-proofed in the fast-changing world of TV.  Mediametrie has relied on Civolution’s technology for many years.”

  • BARC’s blueprint for audience measurement to be ready by March-end

    BARC’s blueprint for audience measurement to be ready by March-end

    MUMBAI:  A blueprint for India’s own architecture for measuring television viewership is likely to be ready by the end of next month.

     

    Broadcast Audience Research Council has started the process of having in place the design for the last of the pieces required to build a television viewership ratings infrastructure and be able to start churning audience measurement data from October 2014.

     

    BARC on 13 February issued a request for proposals for Playout Monitoring and Database Measurement designs, which is the last of the pieces necessary for having in place a television audience measurement system.

     

    “Our (technical and commercial) committees will go through the proposals and decide the vendor. We intend to close the entire process by March-end,” BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta told Indiantelevision.com.

     

    Explaining the role of Playout Monitoring, Dasgupta said, “The household panel component is designed to generate data of ‘who’ is watching and ‘what’ is being viewed. ‘Who’ defines the audience that is viewing TV at any point in time. ‘What’ is the channel that is being viewed at that particular point in time.”

    BARC has already appointed French audience measurement company Médiamétrie as it’s ratings technology partner and will be using audio watermarking technology for generating information on television viewership.

     

    “The signals coming into a panel home are captured and relayed (along with the viewership data) to the server. It is necessary to have an independent playout monitoring system which checks the actual telecast of each channel, captures the content at every point in time, and links it back to the ‘what’ part of the audience measurement system,” he added.

     

    Playout Monitoring and Database Management, according to Dasgupta, measures, maps and creates a ‘time-accurate’ database of all creative, commercial, promotional and any other content telecast on different TV channels.

    BARC has laid down several criteria for the prospective bidder for Playout Monitoring and Database Measurement design. These include:

     

    •Software solution to download, store and map all content of the channels to be monitored
     

    •Ability to deliver the content files within 4-5 hours of day-end
     

    • Infrastructure of any solution to download and view/monitor channels and of data centres for mapping and storing content.
     

    • Apart from the above, the bidders would also need to demonstrate their capability in other infrastructure, human resources and security systems for mapping and storing data and software. 

     

    BARC had on 2 February issued RFPs for Design, Quality Control and Analytics. “The response for the RFP has been very encouraging. We have received responses from organisations and specialists from India and across the world, including USA and Europe,” said Dasgupta. 

    BARC is running on aggressive timelines.  “We intend to close this process also by March-end,” he concluded.

     

    BARC had set the ball rolling for installing a television viewership measurement system in January 2013. It had then called for information on state-of-the art television audience measurement systems from players across the globe.

  • BARC issues RFP for playout monitoring and DB system

    BARC issues RFP for playout monitoring and DB system

    MUMBAI: The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) appears to be reaching the final stretch of putting together its vendors for its TV ratings measurement system. Today, it issued another Request for Proposal (RFPs) – this time for Playout Monitoring and Database Systems.

     

    BARC has stated that it could have its house in order by October 2014, and would start churning out its ratings by then.

     

    BARC had earlier on 2 February issued the RFP for Design, Quality Control and Analytics. According to sources, about eight RFPs from national and international players have been received by BARC so far.

     

    “In fact, we had started getting a few RFPs for Playout Monitoring and Database Systems even before we announced the RFPs,” the sources said but declined to give names of companies which have submitted their proposals so far.

     

    The vendors for Design, Quality Control and Analytics will be responsible for designing the panel, ensuring highest standards of quality and applying correct weights and relevant statistical rigour at cell levels to generate final data for subscribers

     

    French audience measurement company Médiamétrie, which has been named as BARC’s ratings partner, will also be BARC’s official technology partner. Médiamétrie will licence to BARC its TV metering system.