Dearth of viewership, ads: BARC India launches 5 measurement products

Will measure digital content, including linear content, video ad campaigns and digital advertising

Audience measurement agency Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC India) has announced the phased roll-out of its digital measurement service along with the brand name and logo of its products.

The dearth of digital viewership and advertising data is known. While individual publishers generate more data at their backend, there is no common currency to compare different platforms on digital. Advertisers, hence, face a dilemma when allocating spends on the medium.

The digital products will be launched under the brand name EKAM (Sanskrit for “One”) and will include a suite of products — EKAM Pulse, EKAM Beam, EKAM Stream, EKAM Ad-Scan and EKAM Integra. EKAM Pulse will measure video advertisement campaigns and will be the first digital offering to be rolled out by BARC India.

EKAM Beam, the next product lined up for release, will measure linear broadcast (television content on digital) that is viewed on a digital device. EKAM Stream will measure both non-linear and pure play digital video content. 

BARC India 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 digital ads. 

The final product in this suite - EKAM Integra - will help industry with common, robust and independent audience numbers that will give more accurate incremental reach figures. To do this, BARC India’s television (TV) data will be tied to digital video data with the help of single-source and digital booster panels on top of the census measurement and big data.

BARC India, as a joint industry company, has been studying the problems and has developed the EKAM suite of products based on industry-specific needs. By providing unique reach and frequency across devices de-duplicated by brand, campaign, site or placement, the EKAM solutions will allow analysis and comparison of different platforms and their offerings. With a single-source panel, large TV and digital booster panels, census level impressions and big data on digital side, EKAM will offer a much more robust and accurate ability to show an incremental reach.

“We are happy to announce the launch of the EKAM, our digital offering. The ecosystem needs a measurement of both video ads and content, whatever the pipe and device maybe. As the brand name suggests, BARC India is working towards its goal of integrating TV and digital measurement,” said Partho Dasgupta, chief executive officer, BARC India.

"Our EKAM suite of products will be rolled out over the next 18-24 months. It will provide the industry with independent third party measurement, verification of audience and eventually viewability of video ads and content," Dasgupta added.

The logo of EKAM draws inspiration from the four colours (red, blue, yellow and green) as BARC India. The branding highlights BARC India’s commitment to providing the industry with a single platform for all measurement products, across TV and digital.