NEWS6 September 2011

Indian readership surveys set to merge at last – report

Asia Pacific

INDIA— A merger of the National Readership Survey (NRS) and the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) – in the planning since 2009 – is set to become a reality in the next two weeks, according to a local media report.

Exchange4media.com says that the deal is set to be completed within a fortnight, two years after the two surveys first agreed to merge in a move that one commentator said at the time would create “one robust survey” instead of “two half-baked” ones.

IRS owner the Media Research Users’ Council and NRS owner the National Readership Studies Council are set to form a 50/50 partnership called the Readership Studies Council of India to carry out a single survey, which is due to operate under the IRS banner for continuity purposes.

ABC chairman Vijay Darda told Exchange4media: “This move is in the larger interests of the print industry. By combining the resources that would be independently invested in these two surveys, the industry will get a robust, credible and authentic data source that will become the single currency for the industry.”

  • The website also reports that the News Broadcasters Association in India has written to TAM Media Research and requested that news viewing figures are reported on a monthly rather than weekly basis. Weekly reporting of numbers “creates frenzy and pressure in editorial teams”, according to one source.

@RESEARCH LIVE

1 Comment

13 years ago

The Indian media measurement business really needs more active intervention (and investments) from the buyers and users, and this is a move in the right direction. Such moves should also be pushed and initiated for the other media (TV, FM radio etc.) where investments have exploded in the last few years with insufficient mechanisms for an agreeable and acceptable currency of measurement. ...and when we are at it, can we (users) do something to fix all other monopolistic areas of measurement like retail and panels too please?

Like Report