Bids planned to conduct TV survey

By PARUL CHANDRA

New Delhi, May 15: Do television viewers want to watch a saas-bahu serial or a reality show? Or would they rather press the remote button and watch an IPL cricket match instead?

Indian broadcasters would now like to find this out by inviting companies across the globe to bid for conducting television audience measurement for them and thus determine TRPs (television rating points). The broadcasters, having come together under the banner of the Broadcasters Audience Research Council (Barc), now plan to float global tenders for companies who may want to take up the task of gauging the likes and dislikes of Indian television audiences.

Pradeep Guha, chairman, BARC and CEO, Zee Entertainment told this paper that the council will call global bids for specific tasks. Further, he said that TAM Media Research can also participate in the bidding. TAM Media Research has enjoyed a virtual monopoly in the business of TRPs with a majority of TV channels and advertisers dependent on it. While the former depend on it for their programming, the latter’s advertising expenditure running into crores are determined on the basis of TRPs too.

Barc is a body which was formed some months ago and it is still in the process of registering itself. Among its members are the Indian Broadcasters Federation (IBF), the Indian Society of Advertisers and the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI).

Earlier, while speaking at an open house session to discuss TRPs organised by the regulator Trai, Mr Guha, "We were dissatisfied like many others with the methodology of the research, the size and the spread of the sample and the technology used." He said that the Barc has been formed to "have an acceptable piece of work that is fair and transparent".