Why the TAM dispute is personal, not professional

At Cannes, in an interview with Pavni Mittal, my colleague at Storyboard, WPP's Sir Martin Sorrell had this to say on the ongoing TAM imbroglio. "Well, I think it is being resolved. I'm very upset on a personal level. Some of the criticism has been leveled at LV (Krishnan) and his colleagues who have run TAM successfully, I would say, brilliantly and effectively for many years and a large number of television stations and media outlets in India have been very successful for many years, even, including your own (with reference to Network18 channels)...". "It has become, in some quarters, highly personal. It's outrageous. They've always done the right thing, they've always gone about it in the right way, they've always tried to provide the best measurement system they possibly can given the resources they have," Sir Martin added.

[caption id="attachment_948099" align="alignleft" width="380"] Sir Martin Sorrell[/caption]

"I think it is being resolved," he said. Well, as this is being written, it's apparent that the issue is far from being resolved - it's gotten worse. From being a battle between broadcasters and TAM, it's now clearly a battle with advertisers and agencies on one side of the divide and broadcasters on the other, now reaching a point where we might see no TAM data at all till the issue is resolved.

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And TAM is caught in the middle - unable to please both agencies + advertisers and broadcasters simultaneously. Each day sees LV working the phone lines, assuaging increasingly impatient users of TAM data.

The problem is, the moment TAM offers a solution to one half, the other half is more than dissatisfied.

That's why, Sir Martin, it's become personal. Actually, it hasn't become personal - it always was. There has been unhappiness with TAM (I must add, that unhappiness with measurement is global, in TV, print and other media) over the years, and it is LV's personal assurances that problems would be addressed that have prevented the situation from getting out of control earlier.

It's because it's always been a case of handling each issue individually - and personally.

If a solution has to be found to the TAM issue, these individual and personal conversations and individual and personal assurances have to end - because they have stopped working.

Sir Martin's correct - the issue should not be personal. The issue should be between companies and not personalities.

And the issue should not be solved in private, one-on-one conversations and meetings. All the stakeholders - TAM, the agencies, advertisers and broadcasters - need to get into a room, into one extended meeting, and discuss every single aspect of TAM. Each contentious issue needs to be listed, debated and discussed till a consensus is found.

Let me underline that I do not, for a moment, think that TAM has not delivered. It has. But, with the television business growing to almost Rs.15,000 crore, the stakes have never been higher and slight tweaks (for example, an increase in the number of people meters or inclusion of the LC1 cities) can negatively or positively affect different stakeholders simultaneously.

It will be well nigh impossible for both sides to agree on all differences, but it is in TAM's interest to try and build consensus - and that can be done only with absolute transparency. The consensus-building will certainly take time, but each minor resolution will take the warring parties closer to a mutually acceptable final solution.

The way things are being handled today, in near-surreptitious personal conversations, things seem to be getting worse by the day, nearing a point of no return.

There's the old saying, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

The corollary also holds true. "If it is broke, fix it."

TAM is broke. Fix it.