Tag: Broadcast Audience Research Council of India

BARC India mulls client contract review & enforcing opt-out clause

NEW DELHI: India’s TV audience measurement company Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC India) is contemplating a complete review and legal overhaul of contracts it signs with subscribers and also enforcing the opt-out clause mentioned in agreements with an aim to streamline the whole measurement process and safeguard against increased litigation.

Indian broadcast industry sources, while confirming such a move is afoot, indicated the thinking within BARC India is that to bring about more transparency in the ecosystem and further boost credibility of the viewership audit, it’s imperative to legally “review and amend” the way in which the contracts are phrased so there’s more clarity.

The sources pointed out that under the present agreement terms, BARC India can opt out of providing measurement and ratings services to any subscriber, especially those that it sees as “compromising” its position in the industry.

According to the wordings of its sample client contract, BARC India shall have the right to terminate an agreement, of course by giving written notice, if a subscriber “commit(s) an act, which brings BARC into public disrepute, contempt, scandal (and) ridicule”. This clause is amongst several other such conditions stipulated in an agreement that BARC India signs with an organization that starts subscribing to the paid, full and detailed services of the ratings audit firm.

Industry sources, familiar with wordings in an agreement, said a legal interpretation states BARC is not obligated or under compulsion to provide or continue to provide its ratings service to a client. “In fact the onus of renewing the annual contract lies on the (paid) subscriber and, while BARC has so far been proactive in renewing contracts under the terms of the agreement, it can leave it up to the clients to seek renewal,” a source explained.

BARC India, which is promoted jointly by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA), in November 2016 suspended for four weeks the review of viewership of three TV news channels. Reason: alleged activities aimed at manipulating viewership.

The news channels concerned subsequently moved the Bombay High Court that immediately granted them temporary relief, while one of the channels also sued BARC India for defamation, seeking financial damages. The appeal is still in the high court in Mumbai, the jurisdiction area for a legal dispute involving BARC India.

The review process of contractual obligations, deliverables and suspension is being undertaken by BARC India at a time when it prepares to rollout its digital measurement services some time later this year or early 2018. It is also set to expand its people meter sample in the next few months.

For this, it had sought global expertise through a process that has elicited interest from several existing measurement firms, including Nielsen. BARC India replaced TAM India, a joint venture between Nielsen and WPP-owned Kantar Media, for viewership measurement in India little over two years back.

ALSO READ:

BARC India suspends three errant channels’ review

In deference to court, BARC to release suspended channels’ data

‘Name and shame delinquent channels’

January 23, 2017
BARC India mulls client contract review & enforcing opt-out clause

NEW DELHI: India’s TV audience measurement company Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC India) is contemplating a complete review and legal overhaul of contracts it signs with subscribers and also enforcing the opt-out clause mentioned in agreements with an aim to streamline the whole measurement process and safeguard against increased litigation.

Indian broadcast industry sources, while confirming such a move is afoot, indicated the thinking within BARC India is that to bring about more transparency in the ecosystem and further boost credibility of the viewership audit, it’s imperative to legally “review and amend” the way in which the contracts are phrased so there’s more clarity.

The sources pointed out that under the present agreement terms, BARC India can opt out of providing measurement and ratings services to any subscriber, especially those that it sees as “compromising” its position in the industry.

According to the wordings of its sample client contract, BARC India shall have the right to terminate an agreement, of course by giving written notice, if a subscriber “commit(s) an act, which brings BARC into public disrepute, contempt, scandal (and) ridicule”. This clause is amongst several other such conditions stipulated in an agreement that BARC India signs with an organization that starts subscribing to the paid, full and detailed services of the ratings audit firm.

Industry sources, familiar with wordings in an agreement, said a legal interpretation states BARC is not obligated or under compulsion to provide or continue to provide its ratings service to a client. “In fact the onus of renewing the annual contract lies on the (paid) subscriber and, while BARC has so far been proactive in renewing contracts under the terms of the agreement, it can leave it up to the clients to seek renewal,” a source explained.

BARC India, which is promoted jointly by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA), in November 2016 suspended for four weeks the review of viewership of three TV news channels. Reason: alleged activities aimed at manipulating viewership.

The news channels concerned subsequently moved the Bombay High Court that immediately granted them temporary relief, while one of the channels also sued BARC India for defamation, seeking financial damages. The appeal is still in the high court in Mumbai, the jurisdiction area for a legal dispute involving BARC India.

The review process of contractual obligations, deliverables and suspension is being undertaken by BARC India at a time when it prepares to rollout its digital measurement services some time later this year or early 2018. It is also set to expand its people meter sample in the next few months.

For this, it had sought global expertise through a process that has elicited interest from several existing measurement firms, including Nielsen. BARC India replaced TAM India, a joint venture between Nielsen and WPP-owned Kantar Media, for viewership measurement in India little over two years back.

ALSO READ:

BARC India suspends three errant channels’ review

In deference to court, BARC to release suspended channels’ data

‘Name and shame delinquent channels’

January 23, 2017
Online, music cos.enter top 10 TV advertisers list in week 2 of 2017

BENGALURU: The first week of 2017 saw an all FMCG hold over the top 10 television advertisers list in terms of ad insertions as per BARC data. The total number of television ad insertions by the top10 brands in week 1 of 2017 (Saturday, 31 December 2016 to Friday 6 January 2017) was 268,323 as per Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) data for top 10 advertisers Across Genre: All India (U+R): 4+ Individuals

Spoiling that perfect 10 score in week two of 2017 were online retail player Amazon Online India Pvt Ltd at eighth place with 17,512 ad insertions and Indian music major Super Cassettes Industries placed at ninth spot with 17,250 ad insertions. The rest of the players among the top ten advertisers in terms of ad insertions in week 2 were all FMCG players.

Both the Godrej Companies Godrej Consumer Products Ltd(placed eighth in week1) and Godrej Sara Lee Ltd(placed tenth in week 1) exited the top 10 list to be replaced.

The total number of television ads by the top 10 companies in terms of insertions increased 19.98 percent to 321,923. Despite higher number of television ad insertions (26.18 percent more) in week 2 (14,438 insertions) ITC Ltd move down to tenth place from ninth place in week 1 in which it had placed 11,442 insertions.

Please refer to Fig A below for relative positions of the top 10 TV advertising companies in terms of ad insertions.

While the first three ranks in terms of TV ad insertions in weeks 1 and 2 of 2017 remained the same, there were changes in terms of number insertions, percentage insertions with respect to total ad insertions and changes among the other ranks between weeks 1 and 2. The top three advertisers in weeks 1 and 2 were Hindustan Lever Limited (Lever), Reckitt Benckiser (India) Ltd (Reckitt Benckiser) and PatanjaliAyurved Ltd (Patanjali). Please refer to figure B below that shows relative change in insertions by the eight common advertisers in weeks 1 and 2 of 2017.

January 21, 2017
Online, music cos.enter top 10 TV advertisers list in week 2 of 2017

BENGALURU: The first week of 2017 saw an all FMCG hold over the top 10 television advertisers list in terms of ad insertions as per BARC data. The total number of television ad insertions by the top10 brands in week 1 of 2017 (Saturday, 31 December 2016 to Friday 6 January 2017) was 268,323 as per Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) data for top 10 advertisers Across Genre: All India (U+R): 4+ Individuals

Spoiling that perfect 10 score in week two of 2017 were online retail player Amazon Online India Pvt Ltd at eighth place with 17,512 ad insertions and Indian music major Super Cassettes Industries placed at ninth spot with 17,250 ad insertions. The rest of the players among the top ten advertisers in terms of ad insertions in week 2 were all FMCG players.

Both the Godrej Companies Godrej Consumer Products Ltd(placed eighth in week1) and Godrej Sara Lee Ltd(placed tenth in week 1) exited the top 10 list to be replaced.

The total number of television ads by the top 10 companies in terms of insertions increased 19.98 percent to 321,923. Despite higher number of television ad insertions (26.18 percent more) in week 2 (14,438 insertions) ITC Ltd move down to tenth place from ninth place in week 1 in which it had placed 11,442 insertions.

Please refer to Fig A below for relative positions of the top 10 TV advertising companies in terms of ad insertions.

While the first three ranks in terms of TV ad insertions in weeks 1 and 2 of 2017 remained the same, there were changes in terms of number insertions, percentage insertions with respect to total ad insertions and changes among the other ranks between weeks 1 and 2. The top three advertisers in weeks 1 and 2 were Hindustan Lever Limited (Lever), Reckitt Benckiser (India) Ltd (Reckitt Benckiser) and PatanjaliAyurved Ltd (Patanjali). Please refer to figure B below that shows relative change in insertions by the eight common advertisers in weeks 1 and 2 of 2017.

January 21, 2017
BARC India & Israeli company explore customised digital measurement tools

NEW DELHI: The Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC India) is said to be in talks with an Israeli media technology company to customise for it tools for digital measurement, which is likely to be rolled out in phases from sometime in 2017 or early 2018 and could go on to make BARC India an organisation measuring TV+digital eco-systems.

After having issued Request for Information (RfI) for digital measurement in December 2015 and having received responses from 11 leading vendors from across the world, BARC India had come out last year Request for Proposals for the same.

BARC India is presently working on digital proof of concept that will help it in testing different technologies, methodologies and potential capabilities of the shortlisted vendors.

The companies that had responded to the RfI included agencies such as Kantar Media, IMRB, ComScore, Nielsen, MediaMetrie, Gracenote (in December 2016 it entered into an agreement to be acquired by Nielsen), Informate, GfK, Accenture, EY, eywa Media, Gemius and Verto Analytics.

It was in October 2015 that BARC India CEO Partho Dasgupta had announced at a panel discussion on new TAM models at CASBAA Convention in Hong Kong that the audience measurement organisation was looking at launching digital measurement and will float a global tender for vendor(s).

Industry sources indicated that the Israeli company could be Actus Digital, a global provider of broadcast media and video technologies, and that the exploratory talks between the company and BARC India could be revolving around customising measurement tools for India instead of simply re-deploying universal tools generally used by big companies for digital data collection.

However, it must be admitted that Indiantelevision.com could not independently confirm the name of the Israeli company from either BARC India or the company concerned till the time of writing this report.

The barely two-year-old BARC India, which initially focussed on measuring TV viewing habits via BAR-O-Meters through watermarking technology, is now expanding into the digital realm.

BARC India is jointly promoted by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) and the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) with the latter two organisations holding 20 per cent each, while the broadcasting body holds 60 per cent.

ALSO READ:

BARC issues RFP for playout monitoring and DB system

BARC India eyes digital measurement; calls for global RFIs

BARC India ropes in Nielsen’s Jamie Kenny as DAM head

January 13, 2017
BARC India & Israeli company explore customised digital measurement tools

NEW DELHI: The Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC India) is said to be in talks with an Israeli media technology company to customise for it tools for digital measurement, which is likely to be rolled out in phases from sometime in 2017 or early 2018 and could go on to make BARC India an organisation measuring TV+digital eco-systems.

After having issued Request for Information (RfI) for digital measurement in December 2015 and having received responses from 11 leading vendors from across the world, BARC India had come out last year Request for Proposals for the same.

BARC India is presently working on digital proof of concept that will help it in testing different technologies, methodologies and potential capabilities of the shortlisted vendors.

The companies that had responded to the RfI included agencies such as Kantar Media, IMRB, ComScore, Nielsen, MediaMetrie, Gracenote (in December 2016 it entered into an agreement to be acquired by Nielsen), Informate, GfK, Accenture, EY, eywa Media, Gemius and Verto Analytics.

It was in October 2015 that BARC India CEO Partho Dasgupta had announced at a panel discussion on new TAM models at CASBAA Convention in Hong Kong that the audience measurement organisation was looking at launching digital measurement and will float a global tender for vendor(s).

Industry sources indicated that the Israeli company could be Actus Digital, a global provider of broadcast media and video technologies, and that the exploratory talks between the company and BARC India could be revolving around customising measurement tools for India instead of simply re-deploying universal tools generally used by big companies for digital data collection.

However, it must be admitted that Indiantelevision.com could not independently confirm the name of the Israeli company from either BARC India or the company concerned till the time of writing this report.

The barely two-year-old BARC India, which initially focussed on measuring TV viewing habits via BAR-O-Meters through watermarking technology, is now expanding into the digital realm.

BARC India is jointly promoted by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) and the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) with the latter two organisations holding 20 per cent each, while the broadcasting body holds 60 per cent.

ALSO READ:

BARC issues RFP for playout monitoring and DB system

BARC India eyes digital measurement; calls for global RFIs

BARC India ropes in Nielsen’s Jamie Kenny as DAM head

January 13, 2017
It’s all FMCG brands among top 10 TV advertisers in week one of 2017

BENGALURU: Hindustan Lever Limited (Lever) brands led the FMCG brands with a massive 96,682 television advertisement insertions (36.03 percent of the total insertions by top 10 advertisers). The total number of television ad insertions by the top10 brands in week 1 of 2017 (Saturday, 31 December 2016 to Friday 6 January 2017) was 268,323 as Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) data for top 10 advertisers Across Genre: All India (U+R): 4+ Individuals. All the companies among the top 10 television advertisers were FMCG players. The total number of insertions by the top 10 advertisers in week 1 was 3.22 percent more than the 259,961 insertions in week 52 of 2016. Lever’s ad insertions in week 1 increased 11.36 percent from 86,819 in the previous week.

Besides Lever being mentioned in the list of top 10 advertisers in terms of insertions, BARC has also mentioned some of its subsidiary/brands separately in the lists, including Brooke Bond Lipton India Ltd, Ponds India. Similarly, Godrej companies Godrej Consumer Products Ltd andGodrej Sara Lee Ltd find places at eighth and tenth spots with 11,792 (4.39 percent of total) and 11,471 (4.25 percent) insertions respectively.

At second place and trailing far behind was Reckitt Benckiser (India) Ltd with 29,538 (11.01 percent) of insertions. PatanjaliAyurved Limited (Payanjali), which had stood at number 2 for the last four weeks of 2016, was placed third in week 1 of 2017 with 29,538 (10.82 percent) insertions, 13.05 percent lower than the 33,381 insertions in week 52 of 2016.

Please refer to Fig A for BARC data on top 10 advertisers in terms of insertions Across Genre: All India (U+R): 4+ Individualsfor week 1 of 2017 below:

As mentioned above, in weeks 49 to 52 of 2016, Lever led the pack followed by Patanjali. Among mobile services, Bharti Airtel Ltd was also present in all the last four weeks of 2016. Please refer to Fig B below for Fig B – BARC: Top 10 Advertisers Across Genre: All India (U+R) : 4+ Individuals – weeks 49-52 of 2016:

January 13, 2017
It’s all FMCG brands among top 10 TV advertisers in week one of 2017

BENGALURU: Hindustan Lever Limited (Lever) brands led the FMCG brands with a massive 96,682 television advertisement insertions (36.03 percent of the total insertions by top 10 advertisers). The total number of television ad insertions by the top10 brands in week 1 of 2017 (Saturday, 31 December 2016 to Friday 6 January 2017) was 268,323 as Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) data for top 10 advertisers Across Genre: All India (U+R): 4+ Individuals. All the companies among the top 10 television advertisers were FMCG players. The total number of insertions by the top 10 advertisers in week 1 was 3.22 percent more than the 259,961 insertions in week 52 of 2016. Lever’s ad insertions in week 1 increased 11.36 percent from 86,819 in the previous week.

Besides Lever being mentioned in the list of top 10 advertisers in terms of insertions, BARC has also mentioned some of its subsidiary/brands separately in the lists, including Brooke Bond Lipton India Ltd, Ponds India. Similarly, Godrej companies Godrej Consumer Products Ltd andGodrej Sara Lee Ltd find places at eighth and tenth spots with 11,792 (4.39 percent of total) and 11,471 (4.25 percent) insertions respectively.

At second place and trailing far behind was Reckitt Benckiser (India) Ltd with 29,538 (11.01 percent) of insertions. PatanjaliAyurved Limited (Payanjali), which had stood at number 2 for the last four weeks of 2016, was placed third in week 1 of 2017 with 29,538 (10.82 percent) insertions, 13.05 percent lower than the 33,381 insertions in week 52 of 2016.

Please refer to Fig A for BARC data on top 10 advertisers in terms of insertions Across Genre: All India (U+R): 4+ Individualsfor week 1 of 2017 below:

As mentioned above, in weeks 49 to 52 of 2016, Lever led the pack followed by Patanjali. Among mobile services, Bharti Airtel Ltd was also present in all the last four weeks of 2016. Please refer to Fig B below for Fig B – BARC: Top 10 Advertisers Across Genre: All India (U+R) : 4+ Individuals – weeks 49-52 of 2016:

January 13, 2017
Hindustan Lever, Patanjali had largest TV ad insertions

BENGALURU: Over the last four weeks of calendar year 2016, Hindustan Lever Limited (Lever) and Patanjali have been the top advertisers in terms of number of television ad insertions according to Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) data for weeks 49 (Saturday 3 December 2016) until week 52 (Friday 30 December 2016). The data covers Top 10 Advertiser’s Across Genre: All India (U+R) : 4+ Individuals.

Lever with 64,264 (36.19 percent), 62,655 (31.95 percent), 66,922 (29.44 percent) and 86,817 (33.40 percent) adinsertions in weeks 49, 50, 51 and 52 respectively of 2016 held numerouno position as top television advertiser in terms of ad insertions. Patanjali with 18,539 (10.44 percent), 23,430 (11.95 percent), 33,064 (14.55 percent), and 33,381 (12.84 percent)television ad insertions in weeks 49, 50, 51 and 52 respectively of 2016 stood second.

Bharti Airtel Limited, Ponds India and Brooke Bond Lipton India Limited were the other brands that were present across all the 4 weeks among the top 10 television advertisers in terms of ad insertions.Smithkline Beecham was amongst the top 10 advertisers in terms of television ad insertions for weeks 50, 51 and 52. Please refer to Figure A below for list of Top 10 Advertisers across genre: All India (Urban + Rural): 4+ individuals.

As is obvious from the charts above, the total number of insertions has increased steadily from week 49 from 177,582 to 259,961 (by 82,379 insertions 46.39 percent increase) in week 52. The increase in total number of ad insertions by the top 10 advertisers between weeks 49 and 50 was 18,533 (10.44 percent); between weeks 50 and 51 was 31,169 (15.89 percent); between weeks 51 and 52 was 32,677 (14.38 percent).

January 6, 2017
Hindustan Lever, Patanjali had largest TV ad insertions

BENGALURU: Over the last four weeks of calendar year 2016, Hindustan Lever Limited (Lever) and Patanjali have been the top advertisers in terms of number of television ad insertions according to Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) data for weeks 49 (Saturday 3 December 2016) until week 52 (Friday 30 December 2016). The data covers Top 10 Advertiser’s Across Genre: All India (U+R) : 4+ Individuals.

Lever with 64,264 (36.19 percent), 62,655 (31.95 percent), 66,922 (29.44 percent) and 86,817 (33.40 percent) adinsertions in weeks 49, 50, 51 and 52 respectively of 2016 held numerouno position as top television advertiser in terms of ad insertions. Patanjali with 18,539 (10.44 percent), 23,430 (11.95 percent), 33,064 (14.55 percent), and 33,381 (12.84 percent)television ad insertions in weeks 49, 50, 51 and 52 respectively of 2016 stood second.

Bharti Airtel Limited, Ponds India and Brooke Bond Lipton India Limited were the other brands that were present across all the 4 weeks among the top 10 television advertisers in terms of ad insertions.Smithkline Beecham was amongst the top 10 advertisers in terms of television ad insertions for weeks 50, 51 and 52. Please refer to Figure A below for list of Top 10 Advertisers across genre: All India (Urban + Rural): 4+ individuals.

As is obvious from the charts above, the total number of insertions has increased steadily from week 49 from 177,582 to 259,961 (by 82,379 insertions 46.39 percent increase) in week 52. The increase in total number of ad insertions by the top 10 advertisers between weeks 49 and 50 was 18,533 (10.44 percent); between weeks 50 and 51 was 31,169 (15.89 percent); between weeks 51 and 52 was 32,677 (14.38 percent).

January 6, 2017