TAM The new guidelines for television ratings agencies, notified by the government on 16 January, disqualify TAM Media

Research (50:50 joint venture between Kantar Market Research and Nielsen (India) Pvt. Ltd.) from operating in India. This might lead to a black-out period if TAM is unable to adhere to the guidelines, since it is the only television rating system currently available in India. From broadcasters and advertisers point of view any kind of blackout is adverse for the industry. In any kind of change there must be a smooth transition. Over the past few years, TAM has been criticized by several broadcasters over a small sample size, and allegedly compromised data. Broadcasters say that TAMs sample size is not large enough to represent the diverse viewing habits in urban and rural India. TAM has 9,600 people meters installed across 225 cities, which is way below the required 20,000 meters as per latest guidelines. The ratings agency BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council) has announced partnership with French company Mediametrie as its technology partner, to set up an alternative television audience measurement system. It is proposed to start its operations with 25,000 people meters. The data will start rolling out in the first week of October. The 25,000 people meters are expected to cost the equivalent of 7,400 - 9,600 people metres of the existing ratings agency, TAM. As for the funding, IBF (broadcasters) will bear 60% of BARC's costs, while ISA (advertisers) and AAAI (agencies) will bear 20% each. With the industry migrating to BARCs data, a new monopoly might replace the existing one. The Delhi High Court on 6th Mar14 issued a stay order on some sections of the television ratings policy guidelines that were challenged by Kantar Media. The policy guidelines issued by the Indian government in January said that no investor could have more than 10% equity holdings in both a TV ratings agency and a broadcaster or advertising company. Since TAM is owned by WPPs Kantar and Nielsen India, this effectively would have meant the end of the agency and that India would have been without TV ratings once the guidelines came into effect. To counter this, Kantar took the Indian government to court. The Delhi High Court has delayed the section of the guidelines that deals with cross-holdings until the next hearing on 11th Jul14, thus allowing TAM to continue issuing ratings till then. __________________________________________________________________________________ IRS New Readership survey was released in Jan 2014. The new survey relied on double-screen CAPI (computer-assisted personal interviewing) and data fusion, which helped shrink the interview time from 90 minutes to 30 minutes, thereby reducing both interviewer as well as respondent fatigue. Also, unlike the earlier surveys which would ask respondents if they had consumed a certain media in the last six month to a year, the new readership survey reduced the usage period to a month. Newspapers across the country say that the new methodology used in the IRS this time is riddled with anomalies and contradicts the figures of the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC), which shows the number of copies printed and is a longstanding and trusted measure. Some of the many anomalies pointed out by newspaper groups are:

Wild swings in overall newspaper readership across states. While Punjab has lost a whopping onethird of all its readers in just a year since the last IRS, neighbouring Haryana has grown by 17 per cent. Every major newspaper in Andhra Pradesh, irrespective of language, has shrunk by 30per cent to 65per cent. There are similar wild swings at the city level. Mumbai shows a 20.3 per cent growth in overall English readership, while Delhi (a faster-growing city overall on all macro indices) shows a drop of 19.5 per cent. Hitavada, the leading English newspaper of Nagpur with a certified circulation of over 60,000 doesn't appear to have a single reader now. Hindu Business Line has thrice as many readers in Manipur as in Chennai. Patrika added a whopping 138 per cent readers on a base of 2 million readers as per last IRS survey or in other words 2.5 million readers in Madhya Pradesh in one year without adding one single edition. In Kanpur, Hindustan has a readership of more than 10 readers per copy as against the leader who has just 2.6 readers per copy based on the last ABC figures. The country's leading newspaper groups say that given these anomalies and problems, IRS data should not be used by advertising and media agencies as a reliable metric. They have also asked the RSCI and MRUC, which carry out the IRS, to withdraw the results of the IRS Q4 2013 immediately as well as stop all future editions of the survey. On Feb 19th 2013, RSCI (Readership Studies Council of India) Managing Committee and MRUC (Media Research Users Council) Board met to discuss the way forward for IRS 2013 with its stakeholders. Basis this, the following was decided: IRS to be held in abeyance until 31st Mar14 Process for re-validation of study is being developed; to be finalized by 24th Feb14, and revalidation completed by 31st Mar14 Observations and recommendations to be presented to RSCI by early April 2014 Once adopted, recommendations will be formally incorporated into future architecture of IRS

All members and subscribers have been notified to hold off usage of the study from 31sr Mar14 until the revalidation process is completed. All the previous rounds of IRS i.e. IRS 2012 and prior rounds will not be accessible from the end of March 2014 until revalidation. In view of this latest development, subscribers will have to pre-extract all the data required for their respective categories and target audiences from IRS by the end of March 2014. __________________________________________________________________________________