Broadcasters Killing TAM Softly

<div>TAM Media, the television audience measurement agency that has been around since 1998, <span style="line-height: 1.4;">is in the throes of a crisis. Three broadcasting networks &mdash; Multi Screen Media (MSM)&nbsp;</span><span style="line-height: 1.4;">that operates the Sony brands, Times Television and NDTV &mdash; have said they will pull out and stop subscribing to the audience monitor. Zee and Star India, among the largest of the broadcasters, are also mulling disassociating themselves from TAM. Currently, TAM Media operates the only audience measurement currency called Television Viewership Ratings (TVRs) based on which as much as Rs 12,000 crore worth of advertising revenue per year is planned and invested through media planners and ad agencies.&nbsp;</span><br /><br />TAM Media has been literally skating on thin ice. Over the years, it has been facing flak for basing its TV audience research on a very thin base of a couple of thousand households spread over a 88 towns and centers. Critics, especially those TV channels who are marked down, point out that this peoplemeter base is too small to provide a scientific dimension to audience measurement. IBF president Uday Shankar says TAM covers just about one-third of India&rsquo;s television universe. The government has also flayed TAM for providing skewed numbers, and Information &amp; Broadcasting minister Manish Tewari frankly told this correspondent that it was all set to shut down the agency. Interestingly, the immediate trigger for the boycott call of broadcasters against TAM was the sharp fall in ratings of many channels after the mandatory digitization of cable TV. In some cases, viewership is shown to have fallen by as much as 25 per cent. <br /><br />The representatives of the advertising industry &mdash; the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and the Indian Society of Advertisers have, however, come out in favour of keeping TAM&rsquo;s ratings going and pointed out that without the weekly ratings, the health and commercial viability of the advertising sector would be at risk. <br /><br />In the long-term, the government and the other stakeholders are working on a broader audience measurement plan through the Joint sector body, the Broadcasters Audience Research Council (BARC). However, it is estimated that financing the new agency would require an investment of Rs 600 crore or more, and no one is quite sure who or how this investment is going to come in. I&amp;B minister Tewari admitted this was the main stumbling block. <br /><br />In this scenario, if a slew of major broadcasters withdraw from TAM and stop paying their subscriptions, the agency might collapse. In the absence of an alternative audience measurement currency, this could be suicidal for the media industry. Besides self-claims, how will advertisers judge which channels are the best to put their money on? The broadcasters are heaving the axe on their own feet, and they would be better advised to bring in the alternative before killing off the only currency that now exists. <br /><br /><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">gurbir(dot)singh(at)abp(dot)in</div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">gurbir1(at)gmail(dot)com</div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Twitter: (at)stayalive</div><br />&nbsp;</div>