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  • ISA appoints Sushil Matey as CEO

    ISA appoints Sushil Matey as CEO

    Mumbai: The Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA), which is the only national body as the strong voice of advertisers over the last 68 years, has announced the appointed Sushil Matey as its CEO. This is in alignment with the ISA’s vision to become future ready to serve needs of advertisers in a fast-changing, post Covid2019 world where digital is emerging as a catalyst in the industry.

    ISA, which is a founder member of the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and one of the founders of ASCI, continues to partner with other industry bodies that connect to the advertisers.  The ISA played a significant role in formation of BARC and is closely partnering with it towards advertisers getting robust and credible data.

    Godrej Consumer Products CEO India and SAARC Sunil Kataria who was recently elected chairman of the ISA, said, “As we transition rapidly into the new normal it is imperative for us to create a stronger value proposition for the industry as a whole. Our primary goal is to make the ISA future-ready so we can prove adequate support to our members and the fraternity . I am pleased to welcome on board Mr. Sushil Matey who will play an instrumental role in realising our vision and accelerating the pace of change. We also look forward to working closely with the WFA and creating a global benchmark in the industry.”

    Matey added, “I’m honoured to have been entrusted with this position and look forward to working closely with all stakeholders and partners. The world around us is evolving rapidly on mutiple fronts and it is vital for us to stay ahead of the change so we can provide support and create value in the industry.”

    Matey brings to the table over three decades of rich experience across B2C and B2B sectors spanning white goods, auto, building materials and lifestyle products. At a CXO level, he has built successful brands, turned around companies, and raised capital. He brings in rich experience of strategy and building scale. His previous stints include working at corporates like GE, Godrej, Schneider, Johnson, Masco Corp. (USA) and Livpure.

  • Indian Society of Advertisers elects Sunil Kataria as chairman for fifth term

    Indian Society of Advertisers elects Sunil Kataria as chairman for fifth term

    The newly elected executive council of the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) met on September 21, 2020. Sunil Kataria, CEO, India and SAARC, Godrej Consumer Products, was elected chairman of the ISA.

    Sunil has led the society over the past four years to newer heights drawing support from his colleagues in the executive council, the ISA members and all fraternity entities.

    On his election for the fifth consecutive term as the chairman of the ISA, Sunil said, “In our journey towards creating a greater value proposition for the ISA in the industry, the focus will be to make this unique body future-ready for the new normal that is emerging around us and to provide value-added support to our members. With the digital advertising having ascended as second only to TV and growing even further, our endeavour this year would be taken forward our efforts in the area of digital measurement. The ISA has plans ahead to work withBARC to create a Multimedia Measurement that can be implemented very soon. We heartily thank all fraternity organizations for their strong partnering and this will surely help us accomplish new milestones. I also acknowledge the continuing support by our members in all our endeavours.”

    He further added, “In particular reference to the Covid2019 pandemic, I am glad to acknowledge the cooperation of all our members, industry associates, vendors and ISA Secretariat team in staying safe adhering to directives by health authorities and governments.”

    ISA is the only national body as a strong voice to advertisers over the last 68 years. It has advertiser members from across industries who approximately contribute to over two-thirds of the annual national non-governmental ad spends.  ISA, which is a founder member of the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and one of the founders of ASCI, continues to partner with other industry bodies that connect to the advertisers. The ISA played a significant role in formation of BARC and is closely partnering with it towards advertisers getting robust and credible data.

    The executive council members of the ISA thanked Sunil for his substantial contribution to the ISA as Chairman over the past four years and expressed pleasure to elect him again for 2020-21.

    Other members of the executive council:

    Atul Agrawal, Senior Vice President – Corporate Brand and Marketing, Tata Services Limited

    Abraham Mathew Alapatt, President & Group Head-Marketing, Service Quality Financial Services & Innovation, Thomas Cook (India) Limited

    Narendra Ambwani, Director, Agro Tech Foods Limited

    Ravi A. Desai, Director, Mass & Brand Mktg International, Amazon Seller Services Pvt.Ltd.

    Paulomi Dhawan, Independent Director, Whistling Woods International Ltd.

    Girish Kalyanaraman, Senior Director Brand Operations, Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care Limited

    Chandru Kalro, Managing Director, TTK Prestige Limited

    Sandeep Kaul, Divisional Chief Executive – India Tobacco Division, ITC Limited

    Bharat V. Patel, Independent Director, Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC Ltd.

    Ramakrishnan Ramamurthi, Adviser J. K. Enterprises

    Amit Tiwari, Vice President – Marketing, Havells India Ltd.

    Subhadip Dutta Choudhury, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer Hawkins Cookers Limited

    AnujPoddar, Executive Director, Bajaj Electricals Limited

    Ram Raghavan, Managing Director, Colgate-Palmolive (India) Limited 

    Gauravjeet Singh, General Manager – Media Services (South Asia) Media, Hindustan Unilever Limited

    Sanjeev Handa, Sr. V.P.  Corporate Communications, Maruti Suzuki India Limited

  • IAMAI suggests advertisers pay 0.25% of media spends to strengthen BARC measurement

    IAMAI suggests advertisers pay 0.25% of media spends to strengthen BARC measurement

    MUMBAI: Presenting counter comments to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) consultation paper on BARC TV viewership measurement, the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has said that advertisers can pay 0.25 per cent of their media spends for TV viewership measurement every year. It will not only help them in making judicious investments but will also largely contribute to the process of increasing panel size for audience measurement.

    The association noted this in response to the question asking about methodologies and technologies to rapidly increase the panel size for television audience measurement and the related commercial challenges. It wrote, “Use of multiple technologies such as peoplemeter, RPD, channel video players, softwares measuring the consumption of OTT and data modelling should help increase the overall sample size without commensurate increase in the costs. Advertisers can pay 0.25 per cent of their media spend for measurement every year to make the currency more robust which in-turn helps them to make judicious investments.”

    IAMAI also stated that it feels Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) and The Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) members, who hold 20 per cent share each in BARC, are not much involved in the currency.

    It mentioned in its counter comments, “At present, IBF owns 60 per cent of BARC and 20 per cent each is owned by AAAI and ISA. As a result, IBF has a greater say in the functioning of BARC. However, globally, higher percentage of revenue is contributed by media owners.”

    “In past TRAI consulting papers, most contributions also came from the media owners. It seems ISA and AAAI members are not that involved with overall currency. Consultation with these constituents may help ensure equal contribution in functioning of BARC by all the three industry bodies, irrespective of the share of revenue contributed. Presently it is felt that with 60 per cent share IBF controls day-to-day functioning of BARC and future course of action,” the comment further read.

    IAMAI also vouched for introducing a competitive currency of viewership management; one based on peoplemeter and the other based on RPD.

    It noted, “We can do this for different types of data, whether from the set-top box in the home or mobile services that enable subscriber viewing on tablets or phones. This will add Digital Viewership Measurement, which is currently missing.”

    “The 2nd study of RPD can be done with Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), who represents most of the digital media and publishers, in partnership with relevant stakeholders,” its comment mentioned.

    Most of the broadcasters, in their responses to the paper, had denied the need of introducing competition in the viewership measurement domain, citing reasons like it would lead to chaos and duplication of data and skewing of results to the convenience of a few stakeholders.

    TRAI had released the said consultation paper in December last year to seek suggestions on how the existing TV viewership management system can be made more robust. It asked several important questions to various stakeholders, including if the current measuring system is apposite, should the sample size of the population be increased, and related commercial viabilities of the responses.

    The stakeholders were asked to file the comments by 2 January and counter comments by 16 January. However, the dates were further extended to 2 February and 16 February, respectively.

  • BARC to share TV viewership data only with subscribers due to TRAI tariff order implementation

    BARC to share TV viewership data only with subscribers due to TRAI tariff order implementation

    MUMBAI: Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India has announced it will only share the weekly TV viewership data with those that have subscribed to its service. The audience measurement firm has taken this decision in light of the TRAI’s new tariff order, which kicked in on February 1.

    “In light of implementation of TRAI’s new tariff order and on-ground changes BARC India’s viewership data will be released only to its subscribers until further notice,” it said on its website.

    The sector regulator on Tuesday extended the deadline for consumers to select television channels under its new tariff regime till 31 March 2019. The TRAI took the call after switch-offs were reported across several parts of the country.

    A senior executive of a major broadcaster told Indiantelevision.com, “While TRAI has extended this whole period, they are giving the flexibility to the DPOs to slowly port people and customers without having content disruption. I don’t think this will impact the advertisers; this gives a breather to both broadcasters and their clients,” on the condition of anonymity.

    As per Chrome DM, 24 per cent households lost complete access to all pay channels in 10.9 million cable and satellite home in 366 urban cities (340 Chrome DM reported channels).

    The senior executive also pointed out that, “NTO deployment is creating massive nightmare for all DPOs, whether it is DTH or cable, so if you see TRAI sent a notice to Airtel because of the outage. The technology is unable to handle the massive data that is getting ported to these boxes. So what’s happening is the technology is collapsing, they don’t know what is happening in the data centres because of which the channels are dropped out.”

    Earlier, the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) executive council had advised its members against using the BARC viewership data for media planning, evaluation and buying perspective.

    Another executive of an FMCG brand said, “We need to stick to BARC guidelines because that’s the norm or benchmark we have in this country. I think TRAI is also in close conversation with the authorities that how much of migration has happened, how much of it is pending right now and that is why they have extended the deadline to 31 March 2019. Ultimately the system needs to stabilize. Till that time I don’t think the numbers will make any difference to any advertiser.”

    ISA believes that it would take a minimum of six weeks to assess the stability of the viewership numbers post the tariff order implementation. It also believed that the impact will be significantly different in each region of the country given the varied distribution and broadcast landscape.

  • TRAI says 6.5 cr cable, 2.5 cr DTH homes under new tariff regime

    TRAI says 6.5 cr cable, 2.5 cr DTH homes under new tariff regime

    MUMBAI: Telecom Regulatory Authority Of India (TRAI) has stated that nine crore of the 17 crore television homes in India have migrated to the new tariff regime. TRAI chief RS Sharma, who has been monitoring the transition closely, said the nine crore figure included 6.5 crore cable TV homes and 2.5 crore DTH homes.

    "The speed [of onboarding] has increased as per our data and we expect the rest of the people to also register their choice of channels soon," he told news agency Press Trust of India.

    With DTH operating on a prepaid model, Sharma pointed out that consumers with long and short duration packs will soon opt for their new channel preferences.

    "We are guiding and helping the operators wherever required and are calling regular meetings to clarify matters," Sharma noted.

    The regulator intends to ramp up its consumer outreach and awareness programmes to further increase the speed of the transition.

    "TRAI will take up a massive campaign on consumer awareness, through social media, print, advertisements, jingles and other programs," he said.

    Last week, TRAI had asked distribution platform operators (DPOs) to respond on special schemes for TV households with multiple connections.

    Reiterating its stand, the sector regulator had said that DPOs should permit individual set top boxes (STBs), even within the same home, to have separate choice of channels, should the consumer wish so.

    As per the new norms, DPOs can provide discounts, and even forgo the network capacity fee (NCF) of Rs 130 for subsequent connections in the same household, provided these discounts are offered in a uniform manner in a region and clearly stated on the website.

    According to Sharma, three operators have already reverted on the special schemes and plans for TV households with multiple connections. TRAI, however, is unlikely intervene into the matter for now.

    The new framework that came into effect from 1 February has been widely debated over in the cable and broadcast circles.

    Last week, the executive council of the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) advised its members against using BARC India viewership date for media planning, buying and evaluation perspective during the transition period, which it believes could last up to six weeks.

    While TRAI has left no stone unturned to ensure a smooth and seamless migration, it continues to battle several legal cases in various courts across India.

  • ISA advises against using BARC data for media planning, buying during tariff order transition

    ISA advises against using BARC data for media planning, buying during tariff order transition

    MUMBAI: With the new TRAI tariff order coming into force from 1 February, the consumption pattern of TV viewership is expected to vary significantly following the impact on the distribution value chain. Considering the challenges during this transition period, the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) executive council has advised its members against using the BARC viewership data for media planning, evaluation and buying perspective.

    ISA is of the opinion that it would take a minimum of six weeks to assess the stability of the viewership numbers post the tariff order implementation. The national body of advertisers also believes that the impact will be significantly different in each region of the country given the varied distribution and broadcast landscape .

    To drive home the point, the ISA has drawn a parallel to the implementation of GST that involved India moving to a new tax regime.

    ISA is also of the view that variance in pre and post evaluations will be higher than the usual and will be highly unpredictable.

    The advertisers’ body also reassured its members that it would work closely with BARC to ascertain the time period when data becomes stable and usable for planning and buying.

    The ISA Executive Council and the ISA Core Media Committee have been in active engagement with BARC Board, Technical Committee and NTO task force over the past few months to arrive at the way forward during this transition period.

  • 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.

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

    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’

     

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

    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’

     

  • IBF is not ending TAM subscription: Punit Goenka

    IBF is not ending TAM subscription: Punit Goenka

    MUMBAI: The sword has been hanging on Television Audience Measurement’s (TAM) head for a long time now. From NDTV Group’s $1.3 billion lawsuit (though dismissed by courts) to Broadcast Audience Research Council India (BARC) likely to start releasing television ratings data by April, as reported earlier by Indiantelevision.com, things haven’t been hunky-dory for the measurement body for a while now.

     

    However, not only did the agency fight tooth and nail the allegations of poor quality TAM research data, it also complied with the guidelines set by Information and Broadcasting Ministry for a TV ratings agency in order to exist. For instance, TAM continues to increase the size of the panel to fulfill the minimum peoplemeter sample size of 20,000 homes guideline, set by the I&B Ministry.

     

    With a few months left for BARC to begin rolling out its data, there have been various speculations making rounds in the industry. “There is the cost issue. Why would one pay for both TAM and BARC subscription? Also, since both the measurement bodies have a different way of functioning, one needs to take a break before adopting the new one,” says an industry source on the reason for the ratings blackout, if indeed it ever happens.

     

    So much so, a few media reports have gone on record to say that the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) is planning to end its subscription with TAM leading to a period sans ratings. This in turn has created panic in the industry, as it awaits two major events namely the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 and the eighth edition of the Indian Premiere League (IPL). As per sources, ad rates for WC are touted to be around Rs 4 lakh for 10 seconds and ad rates for IPL have seen an increase of around 10-15 per cent generating huge ad revenue for broadcasters.

     

    When questioned on the reports doing the rounds and how it would impact the industry in case the IBF decides to end its subscription from TAM, Kantar CEO Eric Salama laughs saying, “I don’t know about the intentions.”

     

    What’s more, an industry source  close to the development clarifies that so far the ratings agency had not heard from the IBF or anyone from the industry on the matter.

     

    To get further confirmation on the matter, Indiantelevision.com contacted IBF board member and BARC chairman Punit Goenka and he denied the report as well. “There is no such decision taken by the IBF,” he asserted.