MxMIndia

Tag: Kantar Media Research

  • Prasar Bharati, which believes that the TAM data under-represents terrestrial and rural reach of Doordarshan, is holding consultation with the ministry and contemplating appropriate action against TAM

    AAAI, ISA to meet TAM on Aug 16 as MIB, Prasar Bharti mull probe

    By A Correspondent

     

    The ministry of information & broadcasting and Prasar Bharati will jointly investigate allegations of fudging of television viewership by TAM Media Research. The two have also sought an explanation from TAM on this issue.

     

    Prasar Bharati, which believes that the TAM data completely under-represents terrestrial and rural reach of Doordarshan – the state broadcaster, is holding consultation with the ministry and contemplating appropriate action against TAM, a senior government official, who asked not to be named, said.

     

    “It is high time transparency and fairness came into the system,” the Information & Broadcasting ministry official said. The ministry has written to TAM asking for an explanation. “Within this week, we are also sending out reference letters to TRAI, the telecom regulator, and Competition Commission of India,” the official added.

     

    The Prasar Bharati board has already given in-principle approval to collate facts, seek legal opinion and hold consultations with the ministry on the issue of misrepresentation and under-reporting of data for Doordarshan by TAM.

     

    “Prasar Bharati also feels that TAM data completely under-represents terrestrial and rural reach of Doordarshan. We always felt that this has caused immense losses to the state broadcaster,” said the person.

     

    TAM Media Research India’s chief executive officer, LV Krishnan, said he has no comments to offer on the issue.

     

    New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV) has sued The Nielsen Company, a global research and information firm, and its partner Kantar Media Research in a New York court for tampering with TV viewership data to favour broadcasters who allegedly bribed executives in its Indian JV, TAM.

     

    NDTV has filed a suit in the New York State Supreme Court seeking damages of around $1.4 billion for negligence and fraud and hundreds of millions more for interference and breach of fiduciary duty. Advertisers and media agencies depend on TAM data-the only available measurement for TV viewership – to negotiate ad rates.

     

    Meanwhile, concerned by NDTV’s allegations on TAM, the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) has called for a meeting with TAM officials later this week. “We are meeting the TAM officials to get the facts rights and understand the issue in the right perspective,” said Arvind Sharma, president, AAAI. The Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) would be attending the meeting, which has been scheduled for August 16, 2012.

     

    “Since advertising agencies are involved in media planning and buying, which is dependent on TAM ratings, we need to know if there is anything to be concerned about,” said Mr Sharma.

     

    Advertisers also say that it was time for media buying agencies to stop relying only on TAM. “Our media buying agencies depend on the ratings provided by TAM. The onus is on marketers to demand from the agencies basis at which they have been spending the advertisers’ money. There have been issues like TAM’s sample size, but over a period of time lethargy had set in,” said Salil Kapoor, chief operating officer, Dish TV.

     

    Source: The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2012, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

     

  • The apex bodies of advertisers and agencies assert they are not delaying the setting up of BARC

    It’s incorrect to blame us on BARC delay, say ISA & AAAI

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    With news network NDTV suing television measurement body TAM Media Research and its principals, it’s become critical that stakeholders of the proposed Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) get their act together to provide an adequate framework for research and ratings.

     

    For, if industry bodies do not act speedily, the government could well step in. It was hence interesting to read IBF president Uday Shankar’s assertion that the apex bodies of advertisers (ISA) and ad agencies (AAAI) have been speedbreakers in the setting up of BARC.

     

    Nagesh Alai

    This statement of not showing enough urgency has not gone down too well with the Advertising Association of India and Indian Society of Advertisers. Said Nagesh Alai, former AAAI president and current ex-officio member: “It is unfortunate that such a comment has been passed. At the end of the day, who are the constituents of the industry? The advertisers, broadcasters and advertising agencies and each of them have a role to play. When all of these are stakeholders, how is it possible that ISA and AAAI will be uninterested in moving BARC forward? The fact remains that we have been engaging with them regularly and have come to an agreement on what the constitution of the shareholding would be; what should be the constitution of the board of governance and what should be the operating principles. All these have been captured in the draft of Memorandum and Articles of BARC, which is with the IBF.”

     

    He added: “We’ve met and agreed in principle on the key issues and have put down those things in the document as it is very necessary to start off. It is lying with them now. As I see it, it is work in progress. There is no question of us not being interested or not wanting to take this forward – how can it be? It is just not a rational statement. Just to recall, three years ago, AAAI was one of the prime movers on BARC – it was our idea.”

     

    On the current status of the draft, Mr Alai said: “As of now, the Memorandum and Article document that needs to be signed by all stakeholders is with IBF. All the recommendations in the draft have been taken jointly by the three member bodies. It is just the question of whatever is there in the draft is seen and accepted by them and we sign and move on from there. As I see it, it would take another one or two months for the signing process to take place; it all depends on how soon IBF responds now. But let me tell you that we will continue to work in partnership so that we are able to come up with a system that is robust and liked by all.”

     

    Meanwhile, when asked for its standpoint on the issue, the ISA reverted with the following statement: “The Indian Society of Advertisers, who initiated the formation of BARC based on the World Federation of Advertisers’ best practice of forming a Joint Industry Body (JIB) for television audience measurement, would like BARC to start tomorrow. We would not like to join the blamegame, as a joint industry body BARC is necessary for robust and transparent TRPs. As for NDTV versus TAM issue, we cannot comment on it as the case is still sub judice.”

     

    Bharat Patel

    When contacted, Bharat Patel, past chairman of Procter & Gamble and chairman of ISA admitted to BARC facing some tough times but said that it will be back on track soon. “There have been ups and downs but you must understand that this is a new baby and it is bound to take a long time. Also, there are huge investments involved. But then it should happen soon,” he said.

     

    On the IBF president’s statement holding the ISA and AAAI responsible for the slow progression, Mr Patel said: “It is incorrect. It’s got nothing to do with the AAAI or the ISA. As I said, these things take some time. We have reached a stage where we are finalising the articles and once that is done it should move fast.”

     

    “One must also realise that people have their own job/business to cater to,” Mr Patel added. “One has to have enough time on hand as people who are involved in BARC have their own jobs to look at too. For me, the real issue is that people are not finding the time to get together. I cannot give a timeframe at this stage as I cannot speak on behalf of other people but then it will happen soon. In fact, ISA wants to get started with it from tomorrow itself as we were the ones who initiated the global best practice JIB by the name of WFA. But you will see it happening soon.”

     

    While the statements from AAAI and ISA reiterate the commitment to the cause of setting up a credible measurement metric, it’s critical for the trio of IBF, ISA and AAAI to put aside differences and work amicably to safeguard the future of the industry. The ball for now is in the industry’s court. If it doesn’t act fast enough, the government could also be an active participant.

     

  • Several broadcasting firms and advertising agencies say this has only established what has been an "open secret" in the industry, but this could be an opportunity to set things right

    Government mulls probe against TAM after complaints

    By A Correspondent

     

    The government is planning to launch a probe into the alleged fudging of television viewership data by TAM Media Research after several complaints from broadcasters.

     

    A top official in the Union information and broadcasting ministry, who did not want to be identified, said the government has received a lot of complaints about TAM in the past. “A lot of people have been raising concerns because of which we are looking at TAM very carefully. We will soon take some action,” he added.

     

    Broadcaster New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV) sued The Nielsen Co, a global research and information firm, and Kantar Media Research, equal partners in

    TAM Media, for tampering with TV viewership data to favour broadcasters who allegedly bribed executives in their Indian JV.

     

    NDTV, which owns the news channels NDTV 24X7 and NDTV India, filed the suit in the New York State Supreme Court seeking damages of around $1.4 billion for negligence and fraud, and hundreds of millions more for interference and breach of fiduciary duty.

     

    Advertisers and media agencies in India depend on TAM data – the only available measurement for TV viewership – to negotiate ad rates. Any discrepancy in the data would have resulted in losses for several broadcasters, advertisers and ad agencies.

     

    News of NDTV’s lawsuit has created ripples in the media industry, with several broadcasting firms and advertising agencies saying this has only established what has been an “open secret” in the industry for a while, but this could be an opportunity to set things right.

     

    “I have always been saying that the TAM data is all wrong, fudged. And I have not changed my views on this,” said Subhash Chandra, chairman of Essel Group, which runs several TV channels under the Zee banner.

     

    “The allegations, which NDTV has made against TAM, are very serious in nature. It is a matter of concern for the broadcast industry. The industry in the past has raised issues like small sample size used by TAM. Even as a company, we have several times taken up issues with them.

     

    For example, we questioned them on this year’s IPL ratings. Given the large crowd in the stadiums we had imagined the ratings to be much more than what were released by TAM,” said Manjit Singh, CEO of MSM India, which runs the Sony and Max channels.

     

    Mr Singh added that MSM has taken up the issue with TAM. “They do come back with explanations but they may not always be satisfactory,” he said.

     

    In its 194-page lawsuit, NDTV claims that it had confronted Nielsen with evidence of data manipulation, including taped meetings with TAM India employees, which showed that they were willing to tamper data for bribes. Nielsen, according to NDTV, admitted in meetings and through emails that its data was being manipulated and that it was willing to address the issue by July 1, 2012.

     

    NDTV says that Nielsen continued to publish these ratings despite repeated demands to stop distribution of TAM TV ratings until the sample size was increased and a proper security mechanism was put in place.

     

    Another broadcaster told ET that it has taken up with TAM the issue of aberrations appearing in the time spent per viewer (TSV) numbers derived from TAM data several times.

     

    “We have raised concerns about skewed TSV patterns in select markets. It could be because of discrepancy at the ground level. But there has been no action from TAM,” a top executive at the broadcaster said.

     

    “We are totally disappointed at the lack of responsibility shown by TAM in dealing with this issue,” another broadcaster said, adding he has lodged a complaint with the I&B ministry about the fudged data.

     

    Most of the discrepancy is due to the small sample size, say experts and industry insiders. The current system is highly susceptible to manipulation. It is easy to manipulate the findings to distort the eventual numbers published by TAM, said one person.

     

    “I cannot say for sure if bribes are involved. But numbers are distorted without any logic and go unexplained. And it is easy to distort the numbers to favour someone,” he added.

     

    A media planner who did not wish to be identified said this is a chance to revive the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) that was proposed by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation a few years ago. The government should also implement the Amit Mitra committee recommendations that talked about irregularities in the current measurement system.

     

     

    Source: The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2012, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

     

  • NDTV has filed a suit in the New York State Supreme Court seeking damages of around $1.4 billion for negligence and fraud and hundreds of millions more for interference and breach of fiduciary duty

    Trade shocked as NDTV sues Nielsen,Kantar,TAM & others

    By A Correspondent

     

    New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV) has sued The Nielsen Co, a global research and information firm, and its partner Kantar Media Research in a New York court for tampering with TV viewership data to favour broadcasters who allegedly bribed executives in its Indian JV, TAM India.

     

    In an unprecedented action, the Indian television producer and broadcaster, NDTV, which owns the news channels NDTV 24×7 and NDTV India, has filed a suit in the New York State Supreme Court seeking damages of around $1.4 billion for negligence and fraud and hundreds of millions more for interference and breach of fiduciary duty. Advertisers and media agencies depend on TAM data – the only available measurement for TV viewership – to negotiate ad rates.

     

    In its 194-page lawsuit, NDTV claims that it had confronted Nielsen with evidence of data manipulation, including taped meetings with TAM India employees, which showed that they were willing to tamper data for bribes. Nielsen, according to NDTV, had admitted in meetings and through emails that its data was indeed being manipulated and that it was willing to address the issue by July 1, 2012.

     

    NDTV says that Nielsen continued to publish these ratings despite repeated demands to stop distribution of TAM TV ratings until the sample size was increased and a proper security mechanism was put in place.

     

    The broadcaster has charged Nielsen and Kantar with “operating worldwide through a deliberately complex web of subsidiaries and joint ventures, creating, at least in India, a monopoly and abusing the power of that monopoly.”

     

    It has also called the Nielsen board of directors “proxies for the world’s largest and most powerful group of corporate takeover specialists (referred to herein and in Nielsen’s 2011 Annual Report as ‘Sponsors’)” and alleged that they took this approach to “‘cash out,’ as part of the typical leveraged buyout ‘exit strategy,’ making billions of dollars in profits.”

     

    Among the sponsors of Nielsen are KKR, The Blackstone Group, The Carlyle Group, Thomas H. Lee Partners, Alpinvest Partners, Hellman & Friedman and Centerview Partners. These sponsors, however, have not been made defendants in the suit.

     

    NDTV has also said that the problem extends to other markets such as Turkey and Philippines.

     

    NDTV managing director Vikram Chandra declined comment as “the matter is in court”. LV Krishnan, CEO, TAM Media Research said: “There is no comment to make right now as the matter is sub judice.”

     

    NDTV is being represented by law firms, Sabharwal & Finkel and Luthra & Luthra.

     

    The news created ripples in the media industry with many advertisers saying they were shocked by the developments. “I am shocked. They (TAM ratings) are a key component of all media investment decisions today,” said Madhukar Kamath, group chief executive officer and MD of advertising and media major, Mudra group.

     

    A media planner who did not wish to be identify, said: “We take TAM ratings very seriously and all our investments depend on them. It is hard to believe that a company like Nielsen, which invests so much in market research, would manipulate the ratings.”

     

    “There have been questions about the sample size of TAM and number of meters it uses to arrive at ratings, but in the absence of an alternative in the TV measurement space, we depend on TAM as large investments on advertising have to be made on the basis of some numbers.”

     

    Source: The Economic Times

    Copyright © 2012, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All Rights Reserved

     

     

  • First sweeps released in October 2011; Comparison shows interesting growth & changes in Radio Consumption for advertisers

    RAM releases the second Radio Listenership sweeps for 9 cities

    By A Correspondent

     

    RAM (Radio Audience Measurement) service, launched by TAM Media Research in 2007 for the radio industry, has released the second round of its 9 cities Listenership Sweeps. The first round was released in October 2012, along with the announcement of the news on RAM panel coverage expansion to 9 additional cities – Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kanpur, Lucknow, Nagpur and Pune. Prior to that, RAM operated out of the four Indian metros – Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai only.

     

    As planned and announced, the second sweeps data is for the period of February-April 2012. This sweeps, released by RAM, will help the radio industry: broadcasters & media planning agencies, to assess the impact that radio medium is having on audiences in towns other than the major metros.

     

    Commenting on this release, LV Krishnan, CEO said: “The second roll out is as per timelines committed by us. After the first sweeps in October last year, the second one shows interesting changes in radio consumption patterns. While in some markets, radio consumption base itself has seen an increase, in others, granular trends like Out Of Home (OOH) listenership has seen an encouraging increase.”

     

    RAM’s second sweeps highlights certain interesting changes in radio consumption behaviour, not only across the 9 cities, but also in comparison to the October 2011 sweeps release.

     

    Some highlights are:

    • Ahmedabad, Chennai & Hyderabad are the growth markets. Southern metros have seen more than 30 per cent growth in listening thresholds while Ahmedabad has witnessed 15 per cent growth
    • Pune,Kanpur,IndoreandNagpur, have remained almost the same levels as the previous round

     

    Ahmedabad:

    • Average audience has seen a significant increase in morning while other day parts, remained at the same level. The peak at 9am has grown by 70 per cent.
    • The increase in morning day part is due to 10 per cent growth in cume reach levels.
    • Share of Out of Home listening has grown significantly. Particularly during travel/conveyance with share of listening growing from 9 to 16 per cent
    • Cume reach levels have gone up across all the days, while Sunday has seen a significant growth
    • Time spent levels have seen a very marginal drop across the days. Sunday remains the day with highest time spent level
    • While 90 per cent of cume reach build up was achieved by afternoon earlier, now 95 per cent of the audience can be targeted by the morning day part alone at a weekly level

     

    Chennai:

    • While cume reach levels have dropped across all the day parts, time spent levels have significantly increased. The maximum increase in time spent being in the morning day part.
    • The audience build up has got spread through the day. It takes up to afternoon day part to cover 95 per cent of all audience.
    • Share of SEC C’s listening has grown from 37 per cent to 43 per cent
    • Share of in-home listenership grows from 76 per cent to 87 per cent
    • While Saturday had the highest listenership thresholds the previous round, Sunday has grown beyond Saturday in round 2 – both in terms of cume reach and time spent

     

    Nagpur:

    • The weekly listenership levels have remained at the same levels as the previous round
    • The daily cume reach has gone up, with Sunday being the maximum, but time spent levels are down across all the days.
    • Share of In-home listening grows from 82-87 per cent

     

    Jaipur:

    • Drop in listenership thresholds across the day
    • The same reflects in the cume reach levels across the day parts
    • Dominance of SECDE in Jaipur’s listenership contribution is normalized. Proportionate contribution from all SECs to listenership
    • Morning day part continues to be the one where listenership peaks, though at a lower threshold
    • Sunday emerges as the one with highest cume reach and time spent levels
    • The audience build up has got spread through the day. It takes up to afternoon day part to cover 95 per cent of all audience

     

    Indore:

    • The listenership peaks have interchanged between mid morning and morning, morning peak emerging as the highest. Other day parts are more or less are at the same threshold
    • At a weekly level, morning day part emerges as the highest in cume reach and time spent
    • Mid-morning day part saw a reduction cume reach levels.
    • TSL level growth in night day part
    • Share of In-home listening significantly drops from 94 per cent to 71 per cent. Maximum growth in Car share of listening at 22 per cent
    • Saturday loses audiences as Sunday emerges as the destination of maximum listening
    • Faster cume reach build up across the day as 95 per cent of the audiences are reached by the mid-morning day part

     

    Hyderabad:

    • Across the day parts TSL has almost doubled
    • Evening and night day parts have grown significantly while morning has witnessed a drop in listenership levels.
    • The drop in morning day part is primarily due to drop in cume reach levels, while TSL has grown.
    • Contribution from SEC A & B increases
    • 6 per cent drop in share of in-home listening, reflected in the growth of listening share from car/travel/conveyance
    • Equal and high threshold of listenership across weekdays and weekends
    • Evening and night day parts add significant amount of audiences to cume reach build up

     

    Pune:

    • Similar listenership thresholds across the day parts
    • Mid-morning to night, there is a drop in cume reach levels, but across the day parts there is a growth in TSL levels
    • Contribution from different places of listening remains the same
    • Sunday emerges as the destination of highest listenership
    • Audience addition from afternoon grows in the current year

     

    Lucknow:

    • Listenership thresholds drop across the day parts, while night primetime holds the thresholds
    • While there is cume reach growth in some of the day parts, there has been TSL drop across all of them
    • Share of listening from 35+ age group comes down
    • Contribution from in-home listening grows from 89 per cent to 93 per cent
    • Cumulative audience on Sunday grow from 82% to 94%
    • Weekdays and weekends have similar thresholds of TSL

     

    Kanpur:

    • Marginal changes in day part wise preferences
    • Growth in consumption share fromSECABand 45+ age group
    • OOH share of listening grows from 23 per cent to 29 per cent, majority of the growth coming from car/travel
    • Sunday emerges as the clear leader in listening thresholds

     

    TAM is a joint venture between Nielsen Company and Kantar Media Research. Besides measuring TV Viewership, TAM also monitors Advertising Expenditure of Television, Print & Radio through its division AdExIndia. Since 2004, it extended its presence in the PR Measurement & Analysis space for Corporate/Marketing Clients by setting up a separate division – Eikona PR Measurement.

     

    In 2007, the joint venture introduced RAM (Radio Audience Measurement) service to track Radio Listenership for the Indian Radio Broadcast Industry. In year 2009, TAM launched a division, called TAM Sports that specializes in monitoring Sports Sponsorship ROI.