Indian Ratings Rivals Thinking the Unthinkable?

'Tis only a rumour at this stage, but an Indian online publication suggests that long-time rating agency and Nielsen / Kantar joint venture TAM Media Research is talking to new audience body BARC about a 'merger' - which considering their previous relations would be some turnaround.

A report on www.financialexpress.com cites 'officials close to the development' who say that 'talks for a possible merger started a few months ago at the global level' between Nielsen India and Kantar Media Research on the one hand, and recently-launched BARC India (Broadcast Audience Research Council). Nielsen India and BARC have 'not responded to emails' about the rumours.

BARC, first mooted many years ago, was eventually set up after a number of broadcasters complained of inaccuracies and anomalies in data provided by TAM, a 50:50 joint venture between the two global agencies and until then the lone ratings firm. TAM ratings have continued to appear despite the publication of government guidelines in January 2014 effectively outlawing TAM on the dual grounds of ownership structure and sample size (minimum 20,000 set). TAM's legal challenge to the guidelines' abrupt and apparently targeted declarations has been postponed multiple times, with the prospect of a 'black hole' in the ratings perhaps a factor.

Although the BARC service was launched in May amid much fanfare, the 20,000 household minimum is not currently achieved, pending the addition of sample for smaller markets (population of less than 1 lakh, or 100,000), and Financial Express notes that both systems currently use samples of about 12,000 people meters. If combined, they might therefore add up to a service matching the guidelines' minimum at last. But we stress, at present there is no hard evidence to support the existence of the talks, or any certainty that if real they will lead to a genuine collaboration / merger.

To date, the publication notes that the results and rankings produced by the two services have not been massively different.

Web sites: www.barcindia.co.in and www.tamindia.com .