MxMIndia

Tag: Romil Ramgarhia

  • TRP Scam controversy takes a new turn. Mumbai cops arrest former BARC COO Romil Ramgarhia

    By A Correspondent

    Romil Ramgarhia
    Romil Ramgarhia

    The TRP Scam controversy has taken a new turn with the arrest of former BARC India COO Romil Ramgarhia. Ramgarhia had quit BARC as recently as July 2020 and was with the joint industry body from 2014, a year before the services went live.

     

    On Sunday, the Mumbai police had arrested Republic TV Group CEO Vikas Khanchandani. He was released on bail on Wednesday.

     

    BARC is a joint industry body owned by the broadcasters, advertisers and advertising agencies.

  • A freewheeling chat with Partho Dasgupta, the former big boss of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) and now a management consultant

    Reminiscing the BARC set-up days

    Partho Dasgupta: Screengrab from Video

     

     

     

     

     

     

    By A Correspondent

     

    Over the last five-odd years MxMIndia would’ve done over a hundred-odd stories on television audience measurement and central to all of them was Partho Dasgupta, former CEO of BARC India.

     

    Dasgupta joined BARC in June 2013 and in November last year handed over operations to his friend and former colleague, Sunil Lulla.

     

    He is now using his experience and learnings to various places in the world, setting up BARC-like entities as an expert. He is also consulting broadcast and new media companies as a management consultant. And overseeing performance management. He of course continues to be President of the Advertising Club.

     

    Earlier this week, we interviewed Sunil Lulla, CEO, BARC India on the eve of its fifth anniversary. We now speak with Partho Dasgupta, the former CEO of BARC India and get him to reminisce the days before operations began on April 29, 2015.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Provides On-demand access to TV viewership & advertising data

    BARC launches self-service portal for viewership reports

    By A Correspondent

     

    BARC India has launched a new online service called the Self-Service Portal. Aimed at catering to professionals who are in the business of data and analytics, the Self-Service Portal offers a range of TV viewership and audience analytics reports.

     

    Said BARC India COO, Romil Ramgarhia: “BARC India’s viewership is the currency basis which $5.7Bn worth advertising and content decision are made, but the application and impact of the data goes beyond TV ad spends and broadcast revenues. There are multiple entities that can benefit from our robust data to grow their business and we realised the need to make this data accessible to this larger audience and bring it to their fingertips.”

     

    The portal offers reports related to viewership analysis across channels, genres, TV programming, and advertising campaigns. Users can also customize these reports to suit their specific requirement. The data on the portal can be availed at a charge through online payment and the report will be delivered via e-mail within 2-7 business days depending on the nature of the report requested.

     

     

  • IIT Kharagpur’s TYSS Santosh won the gold prize and a summer internship with BARC India for coming up with the best solution. IIT Kanpur bagged the Silver and IIT Bombay was placed third with a Bronze

    BARC collaborates with IIT for innovation in data collection

    By A Correspondent

     

    In a bid to seek next generation technology solutions to better meet the needs of TV audience measurement in India, Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India got students of the Indian Institutes of Technology to come up with solutions.

     

    As part of the partnership, IITians across the country were asked to suggest newer ways of measuring TV viewership habits of 836 million TV owning individuals. The solutions BARC India was seeking included newer methods for channel, content and ad identification as well as alternative to button pushing and current visible meter used for capturing viewership data from panel homes. This was held at the Inter IIT Tech Meet held at IIT Bombay, Mumbai, from December 18 to 20. Ten IITs from across the country participated in the competition and presented their solutions to a jury.

     

    After a rigorous evaluation process, IIT Kharagpur’s TYSS Santosh won the gold prize and a summer internship with BARC India for coming up with the best solution. The proposed solution can potentially transform large conspicuous hardware in panel homes to user-friendly smart assistants, and also reduce dependency on third parties for channel identification. IIT Kanpur bagged the Silver and IIT Bombay was placed third with a Bronze. All solutions presented by the students are platform agnostic and will be further tested for their feasibility. If proven, the solution would be adopted into the system to enhance the measurement service.

     

    Said Romil Ramgarhia, COO, BARC India: “Emphasising on this collaborative approach with the sharpest minds in India for Next Gen technology solutions, , “Indian TV industry is dynamic and its needs are ever-evolving. India faces several unique issues such as power cuts, data connectivity challenges, wide disparity in temperature and climatic conditions etc., all of which impact collection of data. It thus is important for us to keep innovating and thinking ahead,” adding: “We are delighted to see the young and bright minds from the most premier technology institute of India coming up with some extra-ordinary solutions. Through this partnership, we also want to encourage students to take technology from research labs to end users, impacting a million lives.”

     

     

  • The partnership will provide fillip to BARC India’s plan of scaling up panel homes to multiples of the mandated 50,000

    BARC partners Airtel DTH for RPD

    By A Correspondent

     

    BARC India has taken a big step towards using Return Path Data (RPD) for TV viewership measurement. BARC India has tied up Airtel Digital TV, Airtel’s DTH arm, for including its subscriber homes into the BARC India RPD Panel. This partnership will provide fillip to BARC India’s plan of scaling up panel homes to multiples of the mandated 50,000.

     

    It may be noted that in October last year, BARC India had signed on multi system operator DEN Networks for measuring TV Viewership using RPD. By tying up with Airtel Digital TV, BARC India has successfully added a significant DTH subscriber base to its proposed RPD panel. BARC India will use a portion of Airtel Digital TV’s subscriber base to measure TV viewership via RPD.

     

    Romil Ramgarhia

    “Our partnership with Airtel Digital TV will strengthen our RPD rollout plan. Panel home expansion is absolutely critical for us considering the diversity in the country which is visible even in the way TV content is consumed. RPD, will give the industry a cost-effective way of expanding panel home size. The distribution platform owners too will benefit with RPD. It will give them a better understanding into what their subscribers are consuming on TV. This will help the industry at large,” said Romil Ramgarhia, CBO, BARC

     

     

    Sunil Taldar

    Added Sunil Taldar, CEO – DTH, Bharti Airtel: “We are pleased to partner BARC India and support their endeavour of compiling robust TV viewership insights. A credible resource like this will benefit the entire ecosystem including content producers, marketers and help in enhancing the experience for customers.”

     

    It may be recalled that on Monday, Dish TV had announced its decision to launch hybrid set-top boxes which will facilitated RPD. Tata Sky has already mandate WPP’s Kantar Media to research its RPD numbers.

     

     

  • As part of this partnership, BARC India will fetch data from STBs of DEN Networks

    BARC India and Den Networks join hands for RPD

    By A Correspondent

     

    BARC India has partnered with cable distribution giant DEN Networks for measuring TV viewership using Return Path Data (RPD) via its digital set top boxes (STBs).

     

    As part of this partnership, BARC India will fetch data from STBs of DEN Networks. DEN networks, will also use this data for subscriber management, packaging opportunities and to drive advertising revenue on their in-house channels.

     

    BARC India, will use a portion of DEN Networks subscriber base to augment its TV measurement service. The large pool of panel households will also help address the issue of panel home tampering.  BARC India had recently upped its panel home size to 30,000. These RPD partnerships will enable BARC India to capture viewership from an exponentially larger panel.

     

    “Collecting viewership data using RPD is a global practice. However, for BARC India it will be another global-first as we integrate this as part of the currency.  Our partnership with DEN is the first step towards using RPD for TV viewership measurement,” said Romil Ramgarhia, CBO, BARC India.

     

    BARC India, which is looking at partnering with more Cable and DTH operators for RPD, believes that this approach will allow expansion of panel households to over 150,000 in the near future.

     

    “Currently most Cable/ DTH operators in India do not have information on how their subscribers consume content. With more interactive services being launched, this will be a very valuable information for the platform owners. This partnership is a win-win for both and will benefit the larger ecosystem,” added Ramgarhia.

     

    Added SN Sharma, CEO, DEN Networks: “Data gathering and analytics is becoming increasingly relevant in a vast and heterogeneous society like India.  With this partnership, we have taken the first steps towards world class data analytics of subscriber viewing patterns which will help us to serve our customers in a far more effective way and enabling us to offer personalised services.”

  • This is part of the planned rollout of its digital measurement products under the Ekam brand

    BARC India to go to town to showcase digital measurement prowess

    By A Correspondent

     

    After consolidating its TV viewership measurement system, BARC India is getting set to launch Ekam, its digital viewership measurement venture. BARC is now hosting a series of multi-city roadshows for members of the digital ecosystem as part of the planned rollout of its digital measurement products.

     

    This is in line with roadshows it conducted at several stages before launching its TV viewership measurement service.

     

    Themed ‘Ekam: Unifying Measurement’, this is the first digital roadshow which has been planned to familiarise the industry with Ekadigital measurement products. These roadshows will also provide a platform for exchange of views on industry expectations and how the Ekam suite of products will meet those goals.

     

    The roadshows will be held in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru between July 31 and August 2.

     

    Romil Ramgarhia

    “We are aware that industry has expectations as well as several questions with regard to digital measurement. Through our direct engagement programmes, we will hear them and also use the opportunity to familiarise them with our plans,” said Romil Ramgarhia, Chief Business Officer, BARC India.

     

    “Currently, different platforms use different metrics to measure digital viewership. BARC India, being a third-party digital measurement body will bring in uniformity. The roadshows reinforce BARC India’s philosophy of transparency and inclusivity,” added Jamie Kenney, Business Head- Digital, BARC India.

     

  • Having worked with Nielsen, GfK and Gallup Organization, Kumar Rao brings in 17 years of global work experience in the space of research, analytics, statistics and measurement

    BARC strengthens team with two senior appointments

    By A Correspondent

     

    BARC India, the TV viewership measurement provider in India, has expanded its leadership team with the addition of two senior resources. BARC India has roped in Rohit Sarma as the Business Head for its TV business and Kumar Rao as the Chief of Measurement Science. Both of them will be based out of BARC India’s Mumbai office.

     

    Said Partho Dasgupta, CEO, BARC India:“In the last two years, we built the TV measurement business by roping in talent and insights from across the globe. We are now transitioning from a start-up phase to a more process-oriented company. Both Rohit and Kumar bring very relevant skills and experience for this phase of our journey, which will help us better meet the needs of the industry,”.

     

    Added Romil Ramgarhia, Chief Business Officer, BARC India: “Excellence can be achieved only when people commit to constantly raising the bar. At BARC India, we are doing that by first raising the bar on talent. I am looking forward to working with them,”.

     

    Having worked with Nielsen, GfK and Gallup, Rao brings in 17 years of work experience in the space of research, analytics, statistics and measurement. He will report to Partho Dasgupta.

     

    Rohit Sarma has spent over 20 years in the FMCG and media sectors across India and South Asia with companies like ITC, Diageo, Turner and HT Media. He will work closely with both Dasgupta and Ramgarhiain his new role.

     

  • The former commercial head at Zee Entertainment and Colors has moved to Broadcast Audience Research Council as Chief Business Officer

    Romil Ramgarhia joins BARC as Chief Business Officer

    By A Correspondent

     

    Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India has appointed Romil Ramgarhia as Chief Business Officer of the organisation. This is a move to strengthen its core management team as BARC moves closer to the launch of its services. In his new role, Mr Ramgarhia will report into BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta.

     

    In his last role, Mr Ramgarhia was Chief Commercial Officer at ZEEL. Before joining ZEEL, he was also associated with Viacom18, Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints and ACC, in different capacities. However, he has been associated with BARC for a while and was spotted at the announcement of Mediametrie as the technology partner.

     

    Said Punit Goenka, MD and CEO, ZEEL and chairman, BARC: “Romil has played a key role during his limited assignment at ZEEL. It is unfortunate that he has quit ZEEL however I am confident that his rich experience will bring greater value to BARC India. As he now moves on to a new challenge in a new role and domain, I wish him luck for his continued success.”

     

    Added Mr Dasgupta: “BARC India is moving closer to launch. Romil has an excellent background in broadcast, in telecom and in other industries. He was already associated with BARC India as part of its Commercial Committee and hence is well initiated in the processes. With his great business acumen, he will further strengthen the organization.”

     

    Talking about his appointment, Mr Ramgarhia said, “My assignment with ZEEL and Viacom18 has been one of my most challenging as well as gratifying periods of my professional career. It is great to be a part of a start-up which is  slated to be the biggest audience measurement system across the world.”

     

  • Mr Ramgarhia was until recently Commercial Head at Colors

    Zee Entertainment appoints Romil Ramgarhia as Commercial Head

    By A Correspondent

     

    Romil Ramgarhia

    Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) has announced the appointment of Romil Ramgarhia as Commercial Head. He will report to Punit Goenka, MD and CEO, ZEEL, and the entire commercial team at ZEEL will report to Mr Ramgarhia.

     

    Speaking on his appointment, Mr Goenka said: “I am glad to have Romil join the Zee family, and I am confident that his rich experience will bring in immense value to the organization”.

     

    Commenting on his new role, Mr Ramgarhia said: “It is always an honour to join a global brand like Zee. I have personally been an admirer of the pioneering steps taken by this organization in the last 20 years.”

     

    Mr Ramgarhia, who joined Zee on September 13, was until recently Commercial Head, Colors and other than Viacom 18, he has worked with Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints and ACC Ltd.