The R820-billion advertising and media industry in India is facing an unprecedented situation where the majority of mainline television networks have yanked off subscription to the only existing viewership metrics in the country, released by television audience measurement agency Tam Media Research (TAM). The broadcasters say that they will subscribe to the ratings service,only if it moves to a monthly release window, in place of the current weekly one. At the time of going to press, an agreement was being worked out between TAM and some of the mainline broadcasters that the research body would report monthly data for their networks. And that the data would be based on reach figures instead of television rating points. The networks include Star India (with Asianet, ESPN Star Sports), Multi Screen Media, Viacom18, TV18, Zee Network, Times Television Network, India TV and New Delhi Television (NDTV).

Advertisers and ad agencies

remain vehemently opposed to the move. Their logic is simple. A weekly rating gives them the latest data and helps them plan their ad campaigns better. Until a parallel television

ratings system is set up under BARC ?Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC)?why upset the

apple-cart?

The issue has become a real bone of contention between the apex industry bodies ? Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) and the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) and there seems to be no easy solution in sight. An advertiser, on the condition of anonymity, said that the stance taken by the broadcasters was regressive. ?While the rest of the world is moving towards media convergence and real-time data, we in India are moving anti-clockwise. We have weekly data which is outdated to begin with, and now we want monthly data. We should in fact be pushing for television data that?s released on a daily basis,? he said.

Sanjay Tripathy, executive vice president and head, marketing (products and direct channels), at HDFC Life said that monthly ratings will not reflect the rigour and dynamism which is necessary for media planning. Also, it will not be possible to monitor campaigns on an immediate basis or introduce any change in strategies mid-way. ?All the stakeholders should approach it with an open mind and work towards an amicable solution. The larger issues of rating, methodology, transparency, infrastructure, funding, etc., have to be considered independently by a core working group or committee comprising all the stakeholders. They should come up with tangible recommendations on the way forward and put in a pre-decided time-frame,? he said.

The TAM spokesperson stated, ?TAM, purely as an act of professionalism, is fulfilling and respecting its contractual duties and obligations that it is bound by, with the individual broadcaster clients. This decision is on the basis of individual client letter requests only from some specific few television channels that have been received by TAM. Data for all other TV channels will continue to be reported as earlier.?

The agency is also under fire from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) which is conducting its own investigation after complaints registered by Prasar Bharti. The CCI is asking for feedback from all stakeholders on the credibility and sustainability of the TAM ratings system.

Ashish Bhasin, chairman of India and chief executive ? South East Asia at Aegis Media said that taking jumpy, ad hoc decisions was not going to help the industry or resolve the issue. ?Everyone knows that the TAM ratings system is less than perfect. But closing down the only existing machinery is not going to help the industry. The industry representatives have formed BARC, and it is up to the technical committee of that body to make recommendations on the way forward. This body has the sole right to look into the matter and to take a decision.?

Broadcasters, however, defend their stance on monthly ratings, in place of weekly viewership numbers. Rohit Gupta, which runs Sony Entertainment Television (SET) said that media deals are long term and a well strategised media plan is never shorter than 12-13 weeks.

?Before coming up with a plan for a campaign, media planners whet 8-12 weeks of data for analysis. So how will a weekly media plan help in any case?? he queries. As per Gupta, monthly ratings will take care of erratic fluctuations and bring

in consistency.

Ashok Venkatramani, chief executive of Media Content and Communication Services (MCCS) which runs ABP News, agrees with much of what Gupta is saying. ?News advertising is bought by advertisers on factors such as channel strength, consistency of performance, channel credibility and average ratings (over 8-13 weeks.) Ads are not bought on the basis of weekly ratings,? he said. Venkatramani?s contention is that print readership numbers are available on a quarterly basis. Why then must television be singled out for weekly ratings?

Monthly ratings could ease some of the pressure on news channels, he maintains. ?Moving from weekly to monthly ratings will help a news channel take a long-term view and will not result in knee-jerk reactions on stories. This move will actually help news channels improve their content,? Venkatramani said adding that for niche genres such as news, music, movies, kids content, monthly ratings will reduce the margin of extrapolation errors and minimise wild swings in data.

?The news genre ? like niche genres ? has a very small base. Even a small swing in weekly numbers leads to huge swings in extrapolated ratings,? he explained. Venkatramani added that swings in viewership data had worsened post digitisation and hence it was necessary to take stock of the situation.

Broadcasters state that the current current payment system must be moved from the CPRP model (cost per rating point) to the CPT model (cost per thousand). While CPRP is based on television ratings, i.e., a function of people viewing a programme and time spent on it, CPT is based on absolute reach figures. Tripathy from HDFC Life said that they prefer the CPRP model which was more robust in terms of weekly changes. He adds that it is far easier to go for course correction under the CPRP model.based on absolute reach figures. Tripathy from HDFC Life said that they prefer the CPRP model which was more robust in terms of weekly changes. He adds that it is far easier to go for course correction under the CPRP model.