BARC to be sole TV viewership data provider; TAM to exit ratings business from Feb 29

BARC India and TAM India complete joint venture formation; new entity is named Meterology Data.

The joint venture (JV) between BARC India and TAM India has been launched formally with the formation of their meter management company. The new entity, which will be called Meterology Data (MDL), will commence its operations in the next couple of weeks as TAM India exits TV viewership measurement business, effective February 29, 2016.

As part of the new system, all TAM India meters will be re-deployed in panel homes selected by BARC India's sample design, and the JV will help BARC India in growing its sample size.

In MDL, BARC India will have full management control with a 51 per cent stake, while TAM India, which includes Nielsen and Kantar, will have a 49 per cent stake.

BARC India and TAM India have both been generating and reporting TV Viewership data individually to the industry until now. But, with the completion of this JV, BARC India will be the single provider of TV viewership data.

MDL's role will be to run and manage the meter operations and supply raw data to BARC India. Television viewership data will be computed and disseminated through the BMW (BARC India Media Workstation) software. MDL will manage the panel households, and will also be responsible for future TV panel expansions.

The spot monitoring and channel monitoring data will be exclusively sold by BARC India to broadcasters, agencies, advertisers and others.

An official statement says that TAM India will continue providing to the market the following services: AdEx services of TV, print and radio AdEx, daily and weekly sales index reports, Bollywood and music monitoring dashboards, Audience Measurement in Radio (RAM); Sports sponsorship RoI measurement (TAM Sports) and PR measurement data and audit services (Eikona) to its clients.

"The industry was eagerly waiting for this merger to be completed from the time we announced it in August last year. We are happy to state that the joint venture company is complete and all set to kick-off operations," says BARC India CEO Partho Dasgupta.

"We will work closely with BARC to ensure a good outcome for the industry and for our joint clients. We have worked productively with BARC to get here, and under the circumstances, have agreed upon a good way forward for everyone concerned," adds Kantar CEO Eric Salama.

Prashant Singh, managing director, Nielsen, is quite upbeat about the new joint venture. He says, "We are happy to collaborate with BARC India. The coming together of BARC India and TAM India has only strengthened the Indian broadcast industry, as they will now be getting viewership trends from a larger panel size."

TAM Media Research CEO L V Krishnan, says, "I am very happy to see that the JV has finally taken shape. What is even more heartening is that TAM India's current 12,000 meters, which were built and constructed tirelessly over the last 15 years, will get combined to give BARC India a larger and robust TV panel sample base for the Industry. We will do our best to provide our expertise to MDL. Meanwhile, TAM India will continue focussing its efforts towards value adding to the industry through constant enhancements of its existing businesses."