Will AC Nielsen get to handle NRS?

Research agency AC Nielsen is said to have bagged the coveted National Readership Survey (NRS) assignment.

agencyfaqs! readers may recall the story National Readership Studies Council hunts for new field agency, where we had indicated that the NRSC was on the lookout for a new agency, who could do fieldwork and analysis for the forthcoming rounds of the NRS.

AC Nielsen and the combine of Raghu Roy and C R Sridhar of srs-icon were shortlisted for the coveted assignment. IMRB was also said to be on the shortlist, though no confirmation was forthcoming from the agency.

According to sources in the know, the scales tipped in AC Nielsen's favour at the all-important NRSC meeting on the morning of September 24 in Mumbai. An announcement that a decision had be taken was subsequently made at the ABC AGM (NRSC is an autonomous body of the Audit Bureau of Circulation) in the afternoon that day. The name of the agency, however, wasn't revealed.

When contacted, Sam Balsara, CMD, Madison Communications, who is on the NRS Governing Council, maintains that a final decision is yet to be taken.

Once the air regarding the winning agency is clear, the next question will be in connection with the round that it will take up. So far, the NRSC has released the findings of round 1 of NRS 2003; work on round 2 is yet to start.

Rival IRS, on the other hand, will release the findings of round 2 of the Indian Readership Survey 2003 in a few weeks from now.

With much work to be done, time seems to be running out for the NRSC.

Watch this space.

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