BARC to provide digital measurement

Under EKAM brand name, with five products, each to evaluate different aspects of such content

Audience measurement agency Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) has announced the phased rollout of a digital measurement service, with the brand name and logo of its products in this regard.

The dearth of digital viewership and advertising data is known. While individual publishers do generate enough and more data at their end, there is no common currency to compare different platforms on digital media. Advertisers, hence, face a problem in deciding what to spend here.

“While each (OTT or digital content streaming platform) individually has a lot of analytics at the back-end, it’s only their own. Here, we’ll have a common currency, which means a like to like comparison will be possible. Platforms will be able to drive value according to the growth they are seeing and planners will have a better way to buy TV and digital properties. While advertisers will know exactly what they are putting their money on. So, it’s win-win for everyone,” says Gaurav Gandhi, chief operating officer, Viacom18 Digital Ventures, part of Viacom18 that runs its OTT platform, VOOT.

The digital products will be launched under the brand name of EKAM, which is Sanskrit for ‘One’. There will be a suite of products —EKAM Pulse, EKAM Beam, EKAM Stream, EKAM Ad-Scan and EKAM Integra.

EKAM Pulse will measure video ad campaigns and will be the first digital offering from BARC. 

EKAM Beam, the next product for release, will measure linear broadcast that is viewed on a digital device. EKAM Stream will measure both non-linear and pure-play digital video content. Linear broadcast is streaming of TV content on services like Jio TV; likewise where TV content is available on a device other than the TV set.  Non-linear broadcasts are those offered on OTT platforms like Hotstar, Voot or Sony Liv, where there is a library of TV content which can be viewed by a consumer at any time, not only when it airs on TV. Pure-Play digital includes content on platforms like Netflix, YouTube or Facebook; it is not content created for or telecast on TV. 

BARC will also launch EKAM Ad-Scan, a global first-of-its-kind product, giving an overview of digital ads in India, a look at where the advertising money is being spent and which sectors are producing more of such ads. 

The final product in this suite, EKAM Integra, will help the sector, it says, with common, robust and independent audience numbers that will give more accurate incremental reach figures. 

To do this, BARC’s TV data will be tied with digital video data, with the help of single-source and digital booster panels (the digital equivalent of a TV sample homes panel), on top of the census measurement and big data.

BARC says it will, under EKAM, provide unique reach and frequency across devices de-duplicated by brand, campaign, site or placement. These solutions will allow analysis and comparison of different platforms and their offerings. De-duplication refers to the unique reach that can be achieved by combining that of multiple platforms. It basically does away with duplicate viewers on multiple platforms, giving advertisers a better idea of how many people they can reach.

“Now, advertisers can plan according to their goal. If an advertiser wants to hammer a message to a niche audience, he can go for combined reach, including the viewers who are present on multiple platforms. If an advertiser wants to go for a larger target audience, it is now possible for him to know the overlap between two platforms, and then add a third, if he needs wider reach,” explains Gandhi.

In other words, de-duplication gives a number to the intersection of audiences among multiple audiences, which allows advertisers to plan in a way to reduce spillage. 

Thanks to a single-source panel, large TV and digital booster panels, census level impressions and big data on the digital side, EKAM will be able to offer a more accurate ability to show key metrics like incremental reach.

“The single source panel will include BARC’s TV panel homes, where digital consumption within that household will also be measured. This will give us an accurate measure of TV+digital. This is the gold standard in video measurement, and will be a key differentiator for BARC in India and globally. Digital Booster Panels are those individuals who are not part of the BARC television sample but whose digital devices we will measure.  This will allow us to get a larger representative sample on the digital side, to help boost known usage and behaviour.  This will enable a far more robust TV+digital measurement and metrics capabilities than most markets globally,” said Partho Dasgupta, chief executive of BARC.

The EKAM products will be distinct from BARC's TV subscription service.  Dasgupta says the joint industry body will share more information on the subscription model at a later stage as it rolls out individual products. BARC has set up a team dedicated to handling the digital products, led by Jamie Kenney, its business head-digital.

The products

EKAM Pulse: It will measure video ad campaigns

EKAM Beam: It will measure TV content that is viewed on a digital device via Ditto TV

EKAM Stream: It will measure both non-linear (archived TV content on a digital platform like Hotstar, VOOT etc) and pure play digital video content

EKAM Ad-Scan: It will give an overview of digital ads, look at where the advertising money is being spent

EKAM Integra – will help industry with a common, robust and independent audience numbers