Ex | BARC India has delivered on Transparency, Partho Dasgupta

It’s a transparent system and that’s what matter’s more, Dentsu’s Bhasin

Last week many broadcasters expressed joy welcoming the new ratings system. BARC is a positive move to the development of the broadcasting industry. Agencies also expressed joy on the first week’s data of BARC.

Though it is too early to analyse whether the body is giving good numbers or not, we at Adgully caught up with industry Ashish Bhasin Chairman & CEO South Asia Dentsu Aegis Network, Shailesh Kapoor, Founder & CEO, Ormax Media and BARC India’s CEO, Partho Dasgupta to know about their point of view post the launch of their ratings.

Ashish Bhasin, ‎Chairman & CEO South Asia Dentsu Aegis Network said, “It's just one week's data that BARC has rolled out. But more than that it’s a transparent system and that's what matters more. One week ratings shouldn't matter that much. People are jumping too much from one week's data. The data seems to be good and like mentioned earlier it is a transparent system.”

He adds, “If I were to point out some specific changes then there have been few changes. Prime time numbers of households are coming, afternoon section is being measured, news genre reach is 45% nationally, and in the regional channels also there is a change. There is data from rural households as well.”

“Expectation wise yes, the first week's data has met expectations. It is providing data, providing explanation, though individual data will start coming post three months the data that has come is fairly transparent and is a positive development for the industry,” he went on to add.

Kapoor has a different view point. He said, “It is a positive move to the industry.” He adds, “Though one shouldn’t read number before 4-8 weeks because it always takes some time for a body to settle down. Now they are giving household data, at some point in the near future they will give individual data as well, so it is a positive move for the industry.”

We asked Kapoor if he visualises any changes in the way marketers will benefit from BARC in terms of spending money on any specific genre or channels to which he said, “BARC will become the trading currency in future, like TAM was a while back. Advertisers will use BARC data when they are investing their money in different channels.

He adds, “Earlier there was a problem with smaller genres as there was a lot of fluctuation. But BARC has taken a step towards that. They will not report any error above a certain margin. Meanwhile, advertisers are looking for meaningful data and they believe in using that data.

“Currently, BARC is providing urban household data. When BARC starts providing rural data, a wider audience will be covered and it will benefit MNC’s like Unilever because they have a lot of their audience in the rural markets.

While we know that the wait for the broadcasting industry got over when BARC India launched their ratings on 29th April, 2015. On asking Partho Dasgupta, CEO, BARC India about whether they met the expectations of broadcasters he said, “Yes. We are a JIB and all stakeholders are more than happy with the launch and the plans going forward. BARC India has delivered on Transparency, Technology, Robustness and Pricing Philosophy.

He adds, “We are the World’s Largest and Future Ready Television Audience Measurement Service now launched in INDIA.”

There was a problem in measuring ratings for India TV as it got recorded only for three days of the week. We asked BARC if there was any other channel other than India TV that was not recorded for a week to which Dasgupta said, “India TV’s Watermark was bypassed from 18th April to 21st April due to playout technical reasons at their end. This was a unique case which is why it is also shared as a highlight in our BMW user software home page. Therefore only in the case of India TV there is 3 clear days’ data available.”

We also asked them on what corrective measures they are taking on the same to which Dasgupta said, “As explained above, Watermark was bypassed at India TV’s end for some technical reasons. It was not so on account of any shortfall at our end – therefore corrective measures for any such eventuality will be required at Broadcaster’s end in such a scenario.”

Concluding, he adds, “Other technical issues have also been clearly highlighted on our BMW – User software, for keeping all users informed.” By Archit Ambekar | Twitter: @aambarchit

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