MUMBAI: India will have no television ratings for nine weeks till 8 December as it moves towards digitisation in the four metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

TAM, the sole ratings measurement agency in India, will stop releasing the TV viewership data for the week ended October 7, which was to be released today. The reporting will be from 9 December. This decision follows the pressure from broadcasters and advertising agencies.

"TAM will suspend data for all India. The release of data will be nine weeks later," a source said.

The Indian Broadcasting Federation (IBF), Advertising Agencies Association of India and the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) have reached a consensus on the issue of suspension of TAM data.

The representatives of three industry bodies have reached an agreement but have decided to first circulate among their members before making it public.

The representatives of the three bodies met on Monday but a consensus eluded them. They did not meet on Tuesday but held discussions through different means and have more or less reached an agreement. They have decided to take one more day to iron out the creases on the matter.

A TAM Media Research representative had attended the meeting on Monday but was not part of the discussion on Tuesday. The decision of the three industry bodies would be communicated to TAM and the television viewership rating agency would accordingly act on the decision.

The industry bodies needed to agree on the period of suspension of reporting of TAM ratings in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata after the government-mandated complete switchover to digital delivery of cable television from 1 November. The suspension has been felt necessary as there would be disruption of television services for some period after analogue signals are switched off in the four metros.

An industry source informed indiantelevision.com, “The bodies were hoping to issue a statement today (Tuesday), but it just required a bit more alignment from all sides. Whatever be the decision, it should be communicated to the members first before making it public through the media.”

IBF president Man Jit Singh also said, “An official statement bearing the decision taken by the industry bodies will be released to the press tomorrow (Wednesday).”

Details of the agreement, however, could not be obtained.

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Digitisation: Consensus eludes broadcasters and advertisers on suspension of ratings