| MUMBAI:
Two years after launching its television ratings service in the country, Audience
Measurement and Analytics (AMA) has announced that aMap, which provides data on
overnight viewing, has installed 6,000 meters in India. In addition to the
28 markets already being measured, aMap is now present in three more markets Jammu,
Guwahati and Bihar and Jharkhand. aMap CEO Tapan Pal says,
"Currently, ten (broadcast) clients buy our product. We have also launched
a fastrack service for our clients. This reports on viewership patterns during
a significant event. For instance around 27 million people across India watched
the Semi-Finals of the ICC Champions Trophy. "While these numbers are
lesser than what the India matches got, they are considerably higher than the
number of people that previously saw neutral matches. I would say that while our
price might be higher than the competition (Tam) it is a question of the value
one offers. One can slice and dice information in many ways. For instance one
can check out what students watch and if o0ne wants to slice further one can see
what an a student who speaks English watches versus what a student who speaks
Marathi watches. We thus go beyond basic demographics "Also our service
allows broadcasters and advertisers to constantly stay in touch with the consumer.
The resistance from certain quarters to another ratings product will I am sure
come down. Already there are another 50 channels who are keen on using us."
Pal notes that often there
are differences in the ratings that aMap throws up versus what Tam shows. For
instance the time spent on the niche channels like HBO, Star Movies is higher
in aMap's analysis than what Tam data shows. One show that delivered hugely
divergent ratings on aMap and Tam was the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa L'il Champs finale
live event which aired on 28 October. Tam data indicates that L'il Champs delivered
for Subhash Chandra's flagship channel Zee TV a whopping 11.1 TVR, rocketing it
to the top of the charts for that week. On the other hand, the aMap rating for
the show was just 4.7 without the ad break and 4.1 with the ad break included.
The data was generated for C&S 4+ for north, west and east. "We are confident
about our numbers," asserts Pal. Confident he may be, but such disparities
only make the already increasingly complicated job of media consumption analysis
that much more difficult. aMap director Francis Howard said, “We are
committed to the Industry in continuing with the most robust and sophisticated
system that addresses the needs of the changing mediascape. We are now present
all over India. Introduction of the three new markets of Jammu, Guwahati and Bihar
and Jharkhand will give path-breaking insights into hitherto unreported markets.
aMap ensures that it is large enough to capture the smallest nuances of the market.” "We
proceeded in a deliberate manner in adding peoplemeters given the fact that the
distribution landscape is changing. Ideally one would want 20,000 meters in three
years. We also have plans in radio which we hope to surprise the industry with,"
he asserts. Of course there is the question of how agencies related to WPP,
which co-owns AGB Nielsen Media Research, the parent company of Tam Media, will
respond to aMap's product. aMap MD Raviratan Arora says that while it faces an
uphill task in this area, he is confident that firms will accept a product that
offers more targeted results. The idea that a monopoly is good in the ratings
services industry is a fallacy, Arora argues. After all innovation will not happen
unless there is competition, he points out. He still has to convince the
industry on that score though. | 
