Category: RESEARCH

By Our Research Editor

If there was any fear that the new Broadcast Audience Research Council measurement system would be friendlier towards Star and Zee, among the two key backers of the need for a new ratings regime, the release of the data for Week 16 would’ve silenced critics.

For one, Zee is a huge loser at first glance. And the gap between Star Plus and the next Hindi GEC (Colors) has narrowed even as Life OK has become a comfortable #3.

Needless to say, the industry waited with much anticipation for BARC India to roll out its first set of data. For the expectation was to change how content consumption will be monitored and measured in the country. “Today, is indeed a day to celebrate for the shareholder apex bodies – IBF, AAAI and ISA, to launch in 2 years what Countries across the World would have taken at least 5-6 years,” a communiqué said.

Initially, BARC India will be releasing data for 1 lakh+ cable and satellite (C&S) markets which corresponds to a sample size of 10,760 households. BARC India will actually monitor 12,000 sample households for this, using a stratified random sampling technique that is proven statistically. This will go up to 20,000 reporting homes, with addition of the less than 1 lac urban markets and rural areas to represent “What India Watches” in line with the Government of India, Jan 2014 notification.

With over 300 channels being watermarked with this world’s leading technology for measurement. Meanwhile, SpotTrek, launched a month earlier, was started as a third-party certification service from BARC India to track commercial spots and movie trailers telecast on TV by next day of telecast through monitoring of over 360 channels.

NCCS or the new SEC system will now be the new standard, to enable smarter decision making processes with the new socio-economic consumer classification. Both content planners and advertisers will find the new NCCS system to be more objective as it captures the affluence parameters of a household, the communiqué notes.

Security and cigilance is another priority for BARC India. BARC India  uses as many as 28 partners across key processes within the larger framework of meter management, panel management, DQA, IT security, playout monitoring etc. Information integrity is ensured through ‘the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing’ principle.

Said Partho Dasgupta, CEO, BARC India: “I am thrilled to share the first set of data and highlights. Solving this Puzzle has been an exciting experience and TEAM BARC India is proud to be creating history as the World’s Largest and Future Ready Television Audience Measurement Service. Thanks to IBF, AAAI, ISA and all our partners for coming together and making this happen.”

Added Punit Goenka, Chairman, BARC India and MD & CEO, Zee Entertainment: ” With an aim to bring in utmost transparency within the ecosystem, BARC India will certainly be the best solution to report what the nation is actually watching.”

Other broadcasters were equally effusive about the new regime. Said MK Anand, MD and CEO at Times Network: “We are happy that the new measurement system is finally in place. An extended viewer base will certainly help bring in more consumers into the analysed set and improve our services to them and thus generate more value.”

Advertisers and media agencies are also excited about the new measurement system of BARC, though they caution that it’s still early days for the data. While it is impossible to contain them from making claims, it is advisable to wait for a few weeks, said Shashi Sinha, Chairman of IPG Mediabrands and Chairman of the BARC Technical Committee.

Arnab Goswami, Editorial Director & Editor- In- Chief, Times Now said: “I am delighted with the BARC numbers. At 9 pm, we have 2/3rds of the audience with us, with the other one third shared between the smaller channels. In English news now, there is no No 2.”

Meanwhile, here are highlights of Week 16 data:

:: Star Plus is leading Hindi GEC channel of the country (HSM). Colors is a not-too-distant #2. Life OK is #3, not Zee.

:: Colors leads Hindi GECs at primetime, followed by Star Plus and Zee. Yes, you read it right… Life OK is #3 HGEC thanks to non-primetime.

:: Zee emerges strong in fegional channels like Telugu and Marathi

:: Aaj Tak is the leader in Hindi news (HSM)
:: Times Now leads in English news category (All India)

:: CNBC-TV18 leads in English business

:: IPL days put Sony Max in strong position
:: Sun TV is a dominant leader in Tamil Nadu market
:: ETV Kannada is the market leader in Kannada market
:: Discovery is the leader in the infotainment category (All India)
:: Nick is the market leader in kids category (All India)

:: Zee TV HD has the highest Time Spent in the current week followed by Sony Six HD and Colors HD across HSM.

Now, let’s look at the tables: