BARC India to rollout data by end-April; to out ratings on Wednesday

MUMBAI: Speculation and anxiety over the new television rating system will come to rest by the end of April. Yes! That’s when the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India will start rolling out its data.

The industry, will not only have to get used to a new measurement body, but also do away with waiting for the ratings every Thursday. BARC India, a joint industry body, will be outing data every Wednesday.

The measurement body, during a conference held on 6 April attended by broadcasters, media agencies and advertisers, presented the actual data that it would give starting April end. “We showed them the actual data as has been collated by us so far,” said BARC India CEO Partho Dasgupta.

As was reported earlier, most of the leading broadcasters and media agencies had not renewed their subscription with TAM, after their subscription ended on 31 March, 2015. Not only this, many media agencies had also, through an email, informed their clients about the current situation.

The email stated, “The industry bodies have agreed to cease using TAM ratings from 4 April. Rating blackout period will kick in from 5 April, until such time that BARC is available. Data for blackout period will not be available in the future too.”

While TAM had said that it will continue generating ratings and give it out to broadcasters whose subscription hasn’t expired, a veteran media expert had told us, “TAM can continue coming out with its data, but it will no longer be a viewership currency. It will just work as information.”

With BARC rolling out data starting April end, the industry will have to deal with a ratings dark period only for a couple of weeks.