IBF, AAAI, ISA and TAM reach consensus on TV audience measurement

Advertisers, agencies and broadcasters have worked closely and diligently over the last couple of weeks with TAM and are pleased to jointly announce their agreement.

The media and public will now get to know television viewership in thousands, colloquially referred to as TVT. TVT captures and reflects growth in TV audiences in the country in terms of absolute numbers. TVT will be the sole currency in the public domain.

In addition, four-week TVT rolling average will be provided every week. The rolling average is statistically more stable data on viewership, especially for smaller audiences in niche channels, regional languages, English language programs and news.

For internal evaluation, including planning and buying, TVR per cent weekly will be available to advertisers and advertising agencies.

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The three constituents have also agreed that TAM will make all future audience measurement changes based on inputs from the joint-industry BARC Technical Committee.

Commenting on the changes IBF President Man Jit Singh said, "We are delighted to have reached this agreement. We believe it is important for the industry, and from the perspective of our social responsibility, we must reflect both the growing television audience and the data in a more stable and useful manner. We want to thank AAAI and ISA in collaborating and working out a solution acceptable to all constituents".

"As three concerned constituents, who believe in working together, we have decided to refer all future currency related changes to the BARC technical committee. I'm glad that now we will have an effective guide and monitor for ratings in the country", said Hemant Bakshi, Chairman of Media Committee and Managing Committee of the Indian Society of Advertisers.

"Getting weekly TVR per cent is important for media planners and buyers to effectively plan, buy TVand do mid- plan course corrections and post analysis. We are glad that we have been able to agree that the agencies and advertisers will have access to this data as in the past. From tomorrow, we look forward to being able to focus back on our clients businesses and effective planning and buying for their brands", said Arvind Sharma, President of the Advertising Agencies Association of India.

The Indian Society of Advertisers represents advertisers. The Advertising Agencies Association of India represents advertising agencies and the Indian Broadcasting Foundation represents television broadcasters. The three sector representatives have jointly agreed to take this forward.