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By virtue of its speed and quality of insights, Audience Measurement & Analytics’ online TV audience rating service could end the monopoly enjoyed by TAM
"Any kind of monopoly is unhealthy. If you ask me, we definitely want competition." So says Raviratan Arora, managing director, Audience Measurement & Analytics, the Ahmedabad-based company that has launched the first online TV audience rating service in the country.
Called aMap, the service, by virtue of its ability to provide real-time ratings, threatens to jeopardize the monopoly enjoyed by TAM, which banks on a manual process of collecting data that is made available a week after capture.
Television viewership data, in the case of aMap, is collected every morning between 2.00 am and 4.00 am by its central servers that operate by making a cellular or telephone call to the metered homes. The generated reports are immediately made available online to subscribers through a virtual private network (VPN) connection.
For this process to be executed, a TV set must be connected to a box, which is in turn connected to a GSM modem that has a SIM card. Data is logged throughout the day, which is subsequently transferred to the servers in the morning.
What sets aMap apart is not only the speed with which it operates, but also the fact that there is no human intervention at any level. "There are no field executives going out and collecting data from the metered homes," says Arora.
Ratings can be generated for any universe comprising households as well as individuals. Almost 30 to 40 variables have been built into the system to measure viewership, which can go up to 256 as the service matures.
TV-viewing habits and patterns can be analyzed with the help of the data, with the flexibility to generate reports based on user requirements. "Speed counts, but the quality of insight into data is as important," Arora points out.
Indeed, if the battlelines between TAM and aMap are drawn, then the premier point of differentiation will be the quality of service - specifically, the kind of insights - the two audience rating systems can provide.
Arora says that the aMap data is customizable, with pricing based on features bought. Currently, the service is available at an introductory price of Rs 2 lakh per month for broadcasters, while the price is "lower for agencies". Based on the level of interest and the features bought, the price will vary after six months. © 2004 agencyfaqs!