BARC Invites TV Measurement Tenders

India's Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has issued an invitation for agencies to submit tenders for a new approach to television audience measurement. The contract is currently held by Nielsen/Kantar joint venture TAM Media Research.

BARC was established in 2010 as an umbrella organisation which oversees and controls the television audience measurement system across India. Last year, the organisation linked with the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) and the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) to act as a joint body which will evaluate the sector's research needs.

There has been a TV audience measurement system in India for nearly three decades - commencing with a diary-based system in the early 1980s, covering satellite TV by the mid-1990s, and using a pure Peoplemeter-based system from the early 2000s.

BARC says the digital era brings a massive expansion in choice of content, coupled with accelerating adoption of new technologies that are time shifting consumption away from the 'fixed time chart' towards personal digital devices.

Shashi Sinha (pictured), Chairman of BARC's Technical Committee and CEO of IPG Mediabrands India, comments: 'From 2002, Nielsen/Kantar joint venture TAM Media Research has been the de facto provider of the measurement currency being widely used for all commercial and marketing decision making. It is clear that the legacy architecture of the system, that has evolved incrementally, is now ready for seminal change. However, what is not clear are the contours of the new system, which BARC aims to define.'

Responses must reach BARC on or before the end of office hours on February 5, 2013 and more information is available from rfiresponse@ibfindia.com.

Last summer, New Delhi Television (NDTV) filed a lawsuit against Nielsen and Kantar, claiming that staff at their TAM joint venture took bribes in exchange for overstating ratings. Both companies deny the charges and the case continues.