TAM has ADEX now

TAM Media Research has officially acquired the ADEX monitoring service from VNU-owned sister company, ORG-Marg recently. A leading media and information company, VNU has 50 per cent stake in TAM through AC Nielsen, the other half of which is held by KMR or Kantar Media Research, represented by IMRB in India. With this move, TAM will now do TV and press monitoring besides audience measurement, effectively giving a boost to its regular services.

Commenting on this development, LV Krishnan, CEO, TAM Media Research, says, "Due to the synergies existing between ORG-Marg and AC Nielsen, a decision was arrived at to merge the operations of the two companies with a view to cutting losses on both sides. Consequent to this decision, TAM and INTAM have joined hands, and now the ORG-Marg ADEX service is part of the joint venture as well."

Apart from acquiring the monitoring service, TAM is also firming up plans to revamp its database. As part of the exercise, the research body will expand coverage of the database formed in 1970 and model it on AC Nielsen's Global ADEX service, increasing the number of channels and publications as well as concentrating on capturing more information for both TV and press.

Currently, ADEX monitors more than 600 media brands across both media including all DD terrestrial channels such as DD National and DD Metro, national Hindi cable and satellite (C&S) channels such as STAR, Sony and ZEE, regional C&S channels, regional DD as well as specialist content channels such as HBO, CVO and ESPN-Star Sports. Print includes English newspapers such as The Times of India and Hindustan Times, regional newspapers such as Dainik Bhaskar and Dainik Jagran as well regional, national and specialist magazines.

The new database will capture channel, network and contest promos in addition to regular updates (for TV ADEX) improving the quality of information in the process. Similar enhancements have been proposed for the Press ADEX too. As Krishnan emphasises, "What we anyway do in the viewership database is to keep a check on when the programme starts or ends, which is a programme monitoring service, in other words. Now, with the inclusion of the ad-monitoring service, users will be able to integrate ad-monitoring data with the viewership data at their end."

In fact, the highlight of the transformation from ORG-Marg to TAM has been this aspect of complementarity, points out Atul Phadnis, director - S Group, TAM Media Research. "Despite being separate businesses, monitoring is a natural extension to measurement. The point is that we were earlier measuring audience, now we monitor advertisements as well, implying that if the two are combined, you can monitor ads that were telecast as well as know exactly how many people viewed it. Therefore, the fusion of the two databases is highly beneficial to advertisers and other users alike."

Incidentally, on the day when ADEX changed hands, TAM also completed all formalities towards its merger with INTAM, thereby paving the way for a unified currency, which has been operational since July, this year. According to Krishnan, the body will be enhancing the size of the panel from 3,454 meters to 4,800 meters, moving on to cover states such as Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Kerala and Rajasthan in addition to the 15 markets already surveyed by TAM.

"Excluded in this panel are states such as Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and areas in the North East, which cannot be covered due to operational difficulties," states Krishnan. "However the new panel includes almost 1,300 people meters more than the current lot, covering all towns with more than 1 lakh population and should be available to users, beginning next year." © 2002 agencyfaqs!