BARC to call for global pitch

The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) is working full swing towards a new measurement system. In a few months, it will call for a global pitch to decide on the research agency for its surveys

The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) is inching closer to its vision of implementing a new and efficient television audience measurement system. The need for a new measurement system was realised owing to the influx of new channels and broadcasters in the industry and the inefficiency of the existing research tool to excavate indepth data. BARC is currently being set up under Section 25 of the Companies Act, 1956, as a nonprofit body.

The next few months will see a lot of ground work, before leading in to the final implementation. Next on the agenda for BARC is to conduct an ‘establishment survey’. It will call for a pitch for this. The establishment survey will help identify what needs to be studied on a regular basis and in what manner. Aspects like television penetration, viewership habits and viewer demographics will be studied. It will also study viewers’ likes and dislikes.

After that, BARC will call for a global bid to decide on the research agency that will churn out data. Ones not present in India yet will also be allowed to pitch. BARC is not interested in re-aligning with TAM with renewed infrastructure.

“That’s not on our agenda. We are working towards creating a new method of data collection altogether. We don’t plan to do anything with TAM,” says Pradeep Guha, president, BARC, and chief executive officer, Zee Entertainment Enterprises. He says that BARC is gearing up towards creating a new method of data collection altogether.

However, Guha says, “TAM or ACNielsen could participate in the bid. We won’t debar them from doing so.”

The Broadcast Audience Research Council has been set up by the broadcasting and advertising associations in the country, and is represented by the Indian Broadcasting Federation (IBF), the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI), and the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA).