IBF, AAAI and ISA call a truce

The long awaited solution with respect to the TAM's release of audience measurement data is out.

Advertisers, agencies and broadcasters have worked closely and diligently over the last couple of weeks with TAM and are pleased to jointly announce their agreement.

In layman terms, the media and public will now get to know television viewership in thousands, colloquially referred to as TVT. TVT captures and reflects growth in TV audiences in the country in absolute numbers. TVT will be the sole rating available in the public domain.

For internal evaluation including planning and buying, percentage TVR weekly and all other data will be available to advertisers and advertising agencies as in the past. Broadcasters will also have access to this information, should they so desire.

In addition, an option of TVT as a four-week rolling average will be provided every week. The rolling average is statistically more stable data on viewership, especially for smaller audiences in niche channels, regional languages, English language programmes and news.

The three constituents have also agreed that TAM will make all future audience measurement changes based on inputs from the joint industry BARC Technical Committee.

Commenting on the changes, Man Jit Singh, president, IBF, says, "We are delighted to have reached this agreement. We believe it is important for the industry, and from the perspective of our social responsibility, that we must reflect both the growing television audience and the data in a more stable and useful manner. We want to thank AAAI and ISA in collaborating and working out a solution acceptable to all constituents."

"As three concerned constituents who believe in working together, we have decided to refer all future currency-related changes to the BARC Technical Committee. I am glad we will now have an effective guide and monitor for ratings in the country," says Hemant Bakshi, chairman of Media Committee and Managing Committee of the Indian Society of Advertisers.

"Getting weekly TVR% is important for media planners and buyers to effectively plan and buy ad-spots and do mid-plan course corrections and post-facto analysis. We are glad that we have been able to agree that the agencies and advertisers will have access to this data as in the past. From tomorrow, we look forward to being able to focus back on our clients' businesses and effective planning and buying for their brands," says Arvind Sharma, president, Advertising Agencies Association of India.

The Indian Society of Advertisers represents advertisers. The Advertising Agencies Association of India represents advertising agencies and the Indian Broadcasting Foundation represents television broadcasters. The three sector representatives have jointly agreed to take this forward.