BARC Road Show in Kolkata

Third Road Show of BARC was held in Kolkata on 08 August 2013. The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has clarified that its technical committee's evaluation panel plans to appoint three vendors (read three, not two as reported by us on 7 August (Evaluation of RFPs for BARC to be held fr0m 14 August). The first is the technical partner, the second is the panel management partner and the third will conduct the establishment study for the proposed new television ratings system. BARC has announced that the new TV ratings systems should start spewing out viewership ratings by May or June of 2014. The committee, as reported earlier by indiantelevision.com, had earlier accepted applications fr0m 27 organisations, of the 32 RFP responses that it had received.

Once the new TV ratings system is in place, the industry body will also float another tender for a fourth vendor for taking up quality and analytics studies.

20 professionals representing broadcasters, advertisers and agencies attended the meet hosted in which BARC shared the progress it has made so far. Zee Entertainment Enterprises, Havas Media, Zee Media, BPN India and TV Today were amongst the media companies that turned up in the Kolkata leg of BARC's National City roadshow exercise to connect with industry. BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta and vice president Mubin Khan were also present to interact with industry.

"The priority for now is getting the best and biggest vendors. We are currently ensuring that metering, establishment and technology contracts are well managed," says Dasgupta.

The fourth vendor for quality and analysis will take time and Joshi said BARC might get into the selection process in November.

Regional broadcasters have for long been pushing for an independent audience measurement system. "This will help them improve their bottom-line, going forward," say media analysts. "With robust measurement and data, all genres and languages can expect a boost as far as media planners understanding of consumption of their content is concerned." 

Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) began its roadshow in Delhi on 7 August 2013. The roadshow is aimed at sharing the latest updates fr0m BARC with all constituents across the entire broadcast value chain, and, equally important, to receive feedback and suggestions, so that the new television measurement system is completely robust, transparent and representative.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/3011-barc-road-show-in-kolkata.htmlSource: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/3011-barc-road-show-in-kolkata.html