NEWS20 August 2012

TAM Media Research reveals six-point ratings plan

Asia Pacific Features

INDIA — TAM Media Research has outlined a six-point plan at a joint meeting of the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) and the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) to meet concerns over the accuracy of its TV ratings.

The move comes as Indian TV news network NDTV is suing Nielsen and Kantar – the joint owners of TAM – in a New York court over allegations of manipulation of TV ratings data. Reports from India suggest the government is also preparing to investigate the fraud allegations.

Bharat Patel, chairman of ISA, and Arvind Sharma, president of AAAI, issued a joint statement saying that: “As key users of audience research data, advertisers and advertising agencies need to know facts directly from the research agency. And if there are challenges at any level in the research, the research agency needs to share its proposed action plan with us.”

The steps TAM has agreed to take, according to the Business Standard, are:

  1. Appointment of a security officer and a security agency
  2. Expansion in the number of meters in the six biggest cites
  3. A review by the industry of research processes that determine what TAM reports in its weekly reports and what meter homes are left out of reporting for being data outliers
  4. Getting outlier homes independently audited
  5. Faster panel rotation
  6. An internal audit team to be put in place as soon as possible.

@RESEARCH LIVE

1 Comment

12 years ago

Sadly it has turned out to be sordid and the end or solutions not really within sight or reach here. But more than anything I think the marketing community in India needs to take market research much more seriously. Currently it is one of the cheapest places to do market research and even then in terms of Per capita or as percentage of spends it is abysmally the lowest. Markets like South Africa, South East Asia have far better research industries and you can see how evolved the markets are. How do you expect the industry to evolve and improve, if you continue to quibble over money. Even when it comes to the crunch no one is willing to put in money to solve the issues. The TV media industry with hundreds of channels could easily have pooled in money (which they could pass to advertisers at a fraction) but choose instead to sit quietly and use an archaic system. it is so ridiculous, because I understand that in Bangalore they actually have far superior IT hardware nowadays which can help track such details more accurately and cheaper too!!! FM radio one of the fastest growing media segments is hampered by the limited listenership data available as currency. Instead it relies on a large survey done quarterly. India has created the MRUC but it needs to get more teeth and definitely more money to start making a difference. But really, at the end of the day, if you dont value information and insights but commoditise it, finally you end up with garbage - and it would be whismical to expect growth of any kind as you are running on gut. The lawsuits are a distraction. The marketing community needs to introspect and invest in pushing for a better market research community

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