With the recent appointment of Partho Dasgupta as CEO of the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), the three-year-old efforts to set up a television audience measurement body involving all three industry stakeholders – the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) – gathered momentum. Dasgupta has led start-up and management teams of Times Now, Future Media, The Economic Times and Times Multimedia, besides nurturing Educomp. He also has had a brief entrepreneurial stint. He specializes in building businesses and brands.
Dasgupta, a qualified mechanical engineer and IIM Kolkata alumnus with experience in managing consumer industries as well as media, will now spearhead the process of providing an alternative to ratings agency TAM, currently boycotted by several broadcasters.
Dasgupta spoke to IMPACT on several aspects of BARC and issues facing the broadcast industry.
Q] If BARC is to have a substantially larger number of people meters – an estimated sample size of 21,000 homes - and a better measurement service than TAM, where will the funds come from, especially as the same industry will be supporting BARC?
The final sample size has not yet been arrived at. And hence, predicting any number could be an error. Also, there are many technologies where we could actually deploy maybe much larger number of data acquisition devices. We have to take a call based on economics. We will get a hang of the numbers once we have decided on the technology. We don’t really know the numbers now. Regarding funds, BARC has a plan of funding through a combination of capital and revenues. We are yet to cross that bridge.
Q] What will be the composition of BARC and how will it be structured?
The BARC management will be professionally run and managed. This would comprise research and technology experts reporting in to the CEO. Additionally, the Technical Committee will advise the management which in turn reports to the Board. Both the Board and the Technical Committee have adequate representation across the entire broadcast value chain of broadcasters, advertisers and agencies.
Q] In other countries, advertisers fund audience research, but that is not the case in India. What is your standpoint on this?
Audience research should be funded by its entire user base.
Q] Until BARC becomes operational in Q2 2014, and as broadcasters are rejecting TAM, what could be the interim currency of TV ratings for the industry in the meantime? How do advertisers decide where to put their money?
No comment.
Q] You issued a request for information (RFI) in January to understand global television audience measurement practices, and a request for proposals (RFPs) recently from global research and technology companies seeking to participate in BARC. We have it from industry sources that TAM is among the bidders who have collected the RFP papers. What if TAM wins the mandate to support BARC?
I guess the “industry sources” would be in a better position to answer this. On a serious note, we are open to sourcing the best of technology and research. And we are keeping our options open from one and all. Some of the best research and technology companies globally have taken the RFPs.
Q] One of the problems TAM faces is that the government wants it to map rural areas as much as possible, while broadcasters have objected to people meters even in LC1 markets. What will BARC’s market penetration be like – will it be on the broadcasters’ side or toe the government line?
BARC has a one line mandate - design, commission, supervise and own India’s Broadcast Measurement System. There has been no other mandate, objection or suggestion from anyone concerned.
Q] What steps will you take to ensure transparency, secrecy of sample homes, a robust complaint redressal system and audit in BARC?
The system of multiple vendors will ensure strong secrecy and transparency. Secondly, while I cannot comment on the metering mechanism at present, I would not be surprised if we do not have meter boxes the way we see them today, but a software-based solution. In such a case, the possibility of ‘dummy’ or ‘rolling’ samples becomes viable. This would increase secrecy of panel homes even further. For any organization that is in the service industry, a robust feedback mechanism is a must. BARC is a nodal industry level organization representing all constituents. There would definitely be continuous dialogue between BARC and its constituents. And this would also incorporate formal feedback and control mechanisms.
Q] You have extensive experience of working both on the broadcaster and client side of the industry. How will you leverage this experience in the best interest of BARC?
Yes, that’s an advantage. I have been in this ecosystem for long and do understand the challenges and issues facing either side.
ON ENSURING TRANSPARENCY WITHIN BARC...
At BARC, there will be an independent agency doing the establishment survey that will give you the basis for sampling. There is a second panelling and metering agency that gives you the measurements and data and then there is a third agency that provides the technology. BARC is the so-called aggregator of all these three. That itself will give you a huge amount of security about what is going out, because none of the three entities will share data between themselves, and hence collusion can’t happen.
ON REGULATOR FOR THE TV RATING PROCESS...
There will be a strong inherent self regulation mechanism within BARC. The Technical Committee that will oversee the process has representation across all stakeholders. Thus, there is an inherent system of checks and balances at every stage.
ON THE TECHNOLOGY ADVANTAGE OF BARC...
Broadcast is moving beyond television, and any research that we commission has to be future-ready. Strong technology providers across the globe have responded to our RFP. Some technology solutions that we have seen could be paradigm changing.
ON BACKBONE OF RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...
The BARC management will have senior research personnel who will ensure proper adherence to all research protocol, ensuring right data analysis. This team will be formed over the next few months.
ON TIME-FRAME NEEDED TO GET BARC GOING...
Let’s see. The timelines for receiving proposals, evaluation and shortlisting, negotiations etc are set, and are progressing on schedule.
ON HOW BARC WILL BE DIFFERENT FROM TAM...
It’s not fair to compare. TAM is a corporate differently structured than BARC, made up of broadcasters, advertisers and advertising agencies. Secondly, BARC is not a research or monitoring agency. Rather, we are a nodal body that will identify multiple agencies for research and technology.
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