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Tag: Partho Das Gupta

  • The Advertising Club announces its dynamic and enterprising managing committee for the year 2019-20

    The Advertising Club announces its dynamic and enterprising managing committee for the year 2019-20

    MUMBAI: The Advertising Club, the apex industry body that drives the category’s growth agenda today elected its Managing Committee for the current fiscal i.e. FY 2019-20 at the 65th Annual General Meeting.  The new committee will be helmed by the leading industry thought leader and media industry stalwart Mr. Partho Das Gupta who has been elected as President– The Advertising Club. Under his able leadership, the newly elected committee is reposed with the responsibility of facilitating learning and development in the category and ensuring that the India Advertising industry continues to   align to global best practices, innovate and garner global recognition.   

    Commenting on his appointment, said Mr. Dasgupta said, “It is an honor to be elected as the President of one of the most prestigious advertising clubs in the country, and I am truly humbled by the faith and trust that my Industry peers and  seniors have bestowed upon me. I look forward to continuing the legacy of the Ad Club and the great done work by Vikram over the last two years”

     The below members were elected unopposed.

      The Office Bearers of the Advertising Club for 2019-2020 are  
    •    President                 Mr. Partho Dasgupta                                 
    •    Vice President         Mr. Partha Sinha                
    •    Secretary                 Dr. Bhaskar Das                 
    •    Jt. Secretary            Mr. Aditya Swamy
    •    Treasurer                 Mr. Shashi Sinha

    Managing Committee Members include the below industry leaders who will play a decisive role in driving synergies and ensuring the success of all The Advertising Club initiatives 
    •    Mr. Debabrata Mukherjee
    •    Mr. Laxmiraj Seetharam Nayak
    •    Mr. Mitrajit Bhattacharya
    •    Mr. Siddharth Banerjee
    •    Mr. Sidharth Rao
    •    Ms. Sonia Huria
    •    Mr. Virat Tandon

    Additional below is the list co-opted industry professionals:
    •    Mr. Abhishek Desai
    •    Mr. Nandan Srinath
    •    Ms. Punitha Arumugam

    The below list of leaders will continue to bring value to the advertising club through their expertise and deep understanding of the respective industry segments:
    •    Mr. Ahteram Uddin
    •    Mr. Ajay Chandwani
    •    Mr. Ajay Kakar
    •    Mr. Ashit Kukian
    •    Mr. Kartik Sharma
    •    Mr. Pradeep Dwivedi
    •    Mr. Ramesh Narayan
    •    Ms. Sapangeet Rajwant
    •    Mr. Ahteram Uddin

  • BARC India floats initiatives to add new industry subscribers

    BARC India floats initiatives to add new industry subscribers

    MUMBAI: BARC India is looking at adding more broadcasters and agencies from the industry as subscribers by offering them various sops. 

    BARC India currently has more than 370 channels and agencies on board as subscribers, which comprise approximately 94 per cent of the total viewership of channels in India, whereas the agencies control about 95 per cent of the ad spends on television. 

     

    Now with its larger objective of inclusiveness, BARC India has decided to help all the other broadcasters and agencies to use its data and insights.

    The television ratings monitoring agency has launched special initiatives together with the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) and Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) to motivate broadcasters and agencies who are yet to invest and subscribe for BARC India’s commercial services.

     

    The highlights of the offerings for broadcasters are as follows:

    • ‘Special Limited Period Offer’ with lease, rental and buy-back option
    • Limited period offer, closes on 15 August, 2015
    • Installation, testing, commissioning and maintenance for entire contract period would be taken care by Cineom, the authorised resellers of watermarking equipment of Civolution. 
    • Post placing the order with Cineom, broadcasters can subscribe to BARC India’s commercial services

    Highlights of the offerings for agencies are as follows:

    • Special Prime and Supreme packages have been designed for small and medium sized ad agencies
    • A special discount is especially being offered for AAAI member agencies

      

    Star India CEO and IBF president Uday Shankar says, “As a joint industry body – BARC India has always kept the interest of industry stakeholders at the forefront. I look forward to newer broadcasters joining this special initiative designed to facilitate and ease the financial burden. This will help the broadcast ecosystem in India.”

     

    AAAI president M G Parameswaran adds, “I am happy that BARC India has extended a special offer to small and medium sized ad agency members of AAAI, our largest constituency. I am hopeful that many of them will avail of this special offer, join the movement and benefit from the state-of-art rating systems offered by BARC India.”

  • BARC India adopts NCCS as new classification

    BARC India adopts NCCS as new classification

    MUMBAI: In its endeavour to interact, engage and share with its stakeholders – key developments and initiatives – Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India has embarked upon itself to unravel the puzzle of TV audience measurement system in India.
    One of the biggest changes that the measuring body has adopted is the New Consumer Classification System (NCCS).  The ‘New SEC’ system as it is referred to in the MRSI documents was co-developed by Market Research Society of India (MRSI) and Media Research Users Council (MRUC) as the new classification system for industry use.
    The new SEC system, which has been in existence since 2008, was developed after rigorous research as a better discriminator of the purchasing power of a household compared to the SEC. “Research has to evolve over time; and so have systems. In the 80s, MHI was used to classify purchasing power, which gave way to a better system called the SEC in the 90s. It is now time to embrace the new age system,” points out BARC India CEO Partho Dasgupta.
    Alternative systems – a point-based system including education of CWE, press exposure of housewife, ownership of durables and usership of consumer goods; and a system considering ‘best type’ of consumer durables owned – were considered before settling on the present NCCS.
    It is based on the assumption that a system that throws up more inequalities is more discriminating.
    The new SEC system is used to classify households in India and is based on two variables:  education of chief wage earner and number of consumer durables (from a predefined list) owned by the family.
    The 11 shortlisted durables (electricity connection, ceiling fan, gas stove, refrigerator, two wheeler, washing machine, colour TV, computer, four-wheeler, air conditioner, agricultural land (in rural areas) were identified as the best discriminators of the ‘purchasing power’ of a household after evaluating the series of variables, including education of housewife, type of dwelling (house), amenities, number of rooms, ownership of durables and usership of consumer goods.
    Dasgupta believes that the new system will be of great value to the industry due to various factors. “To name a few; (a) Advertisers do not discriminate between urban and rural India from their sales perspective; and the NCCS is a single system for urban and rural India, (b) It is not linked to only one individual in the household, but to the entire household, (c) It is dynamic, having the ability to change over time as discriminators change, and (d) It captures the affordability quotient of household and hence marketers can target more precisely.”
    NCCS v/s SEC – A Comparison:

    NCCS Grid has 12 grades ranging from A1 to E3:

     

  • 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 signs deal with Médiamétrie today

    BARC signs deal with Médiamétrie today

    MUMBAI: It was just last week that the  Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) notified the TV ratings agency registration regulations. And the industry-backed Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) reps were summoned to New Delhi to give the ministry an update on how much progress has been made on the new proposed TV ratings system for India. They did. Today, BARC also gave the press an insight into how far down the road it has gone.

     

    Indiantelevision.com was the first to report that  BARC had chosen  French audience measurement company Médiamétrie as its ratings partner. No cofirmations came from BARC. But today its chairman Punit Goenka  announced that Médiamétrie is indeed BARC’s official technology partner and will also provide licences to BARC to use its TV metering system.

    “Médiamétrie has an in-house research team that helps it to understand the needs of the industry just as how BARC realises what the industry needs. I have heard people ask that BARC is just barking but when will it bite? But now I say we are here to bite!” Goenka remarked candidly while signing the deal at Mumbai’s ITC Grand Central hotel. Médiamétrie will assist the council in procuring its own metering hardware.

     

    The French audience measurement system will be providing the audio watermarking technology to BARC to monitor TV consumption through its 20,000 strong panel. “Médiamétrie wrote to BARC months back. It uses watermarking technology so it is very accurate and can measure data when it is simulcast. Meters are easy to make so we spoke to agencies and advertisers in France to do our background study on Médiamétrie. It is a landmark day for us,” said BARC tech committee chairman Shashi Sinha.

     

    Sinha also stated that the new ratings system should be up and running by 1 October, 2014. “Around 25 vendors approached us out of which we shortlisted four to five. We have got the best of vendors, technology and price of meters. The most important thing for us is transparency,” he said. It will soon be announcing media partners as well.

     

    BARC has been scouting for a technology partner since several months now and finally it has concluded the deal with the French company. BARC CEO Partho Das Gupta said at the conference: “Since the past few months we have been researching the tech we should use and have finally selected the right one.”

     

    Present at the conference was also Médiamétrie senior VP Benoit Cassaigne who was excited to be a part of the deal. “We are among the top five companies in the world and the leading research company in France,” he said.

     

    Goenka emphasised that since BARC is a non-profit body, broadcasters will comply with it. “We are not here to make profits, we are here to help the industry,” he said.

    However, no one was willing to talk about the future of TAM. “We hope there is no ratings blackout in the coming months, but if there is then it can’t be helped. We are working towards getting a better system,” he added.

     

    Star India COO Sanjay Gupta says that TAM and government need to sit and decide now. “Advertisers are obviously worried as to what will happen if there is no rating system in place. Maybe they will look at the past ratings and set prices,” he said.

     

    The contract with Médiamétrie has been signed for a 1+5 year term. The Council says it is totally  open to regular external audits. 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).

     

  • Times Now VP and business head Partho Das Gupta quits

    Times Now VP and business head Partho Das Gupta quits

    MUMBAI: Times Global Broadcasting vice-president and business head Partho Das Gupta is said to have put in his papers, according to reliable sources. Though Das Gupta’s next destination is yet to be revealed, Indiantelevision.com learns that, Das Gupta will continue to work in the media and entertainment space.

    When contacted, the Times Global Broadcasting spokesperson refused to comment on Das Gupta’s departure. 

    Das Gupta played a key role in the birth of the Times Now and also witnessed the transition of the then proposed business channel to the general English news channel. He was also instrumental in executing the collaboration deal between The Times of India Group and Reuters, the international multimedia news agency. 

    At Times Global Broadcasting, he was responsible for managing the marketing, sales and distribution aspects of the pay channel. He was responsible for setting up the distribution team. 

    A qualified mechanical engineer and an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, Das Gupta had been associated with the Times Group for last seven and a half years. He had been actively involved with brands including The Economic Times, Times Multimedia and the ET Intelligence Group, the research wing of The Economic Times. He has also worked with companies like Crisil, Union Carbide and Tetra Pak, to name a few.