Television rating agencies BARC,TAM form a meter management co

Television rating agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC India) today said it has partnered with television audience measurement firm TAM to form a new meter management company.
The new entity will run the meter operations and will supply raw data to BARC India.
"Meters will be deployed, based on BARC's sample design and the ratings will be computed and disseminated through the BARC software. This ratings data will be the sole trading currency for the country, giving advertisers, broadcasters and agencies accurate and quality measurement," BARC India said in a statement.
TAM India, joint venture between Nielsen and Kantar Media, will continue to provide its non-TV ratings services to the market, notably AdEx (advertising expenditure)for TV, print, radio, RAM (radio audience measurement) Eikona, which is a PR audit, TAM sports measurement and S-Group Consulting.

"This partnership is a big step forward and in this era of cooperation, we welcome this move forward as a joint industry body. The technology and methodological process of BARC, combined with the extra meters and the field force will definitely help the industry progress," BARC India chairman Punit Goenka said.
The meter company will have the meter assets and panel management operations of the present BARC and TAM panels, which will be jointly owned by BARC, Nielsen and Kantar with management control resting with BARC.

To start with, the company will have 34,000 meters covering pan-India, and will supply raw data to BARC, which will use its own statistical processes and sampling design.

The details of the formation and roll out of this new company will be shared in the coming weeks, it said.
"This new venture represents our commitment to provide precise and stable data around the world, and draws strengths from both BARC and TAM," Nielsen global president Steve Hasker said.
Commenting on the partnership, Kantar chief executive Eric Salama said, "We are happy to cooperate with BARC to be able to provide clarity and a large single sample for the industry and to keep India as a key market for us.