Mumbai: It has been in the making for around three years now. But the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) - the Indian media sector‘s riposte to the government‘s irritation with ratings agency TAM - finally seems to be gathering some momentum. It today announced the appointment of Partho Dasgupta as its first chief executive officer.

The announcement was made by BARC chairman and Zee MD and CEO Punit Goenka. He said: “We are delighted to have Partho on board. BARC is moving ahead aggressively with its plans. Partho has an excellent background in leadership, in successful start-ups, in broadcast, in research, in consumer products and in other industries. He will help us put the organisation in place and roll out BARC’s services in a tight time frame.”

On his appointment Dasgupta said, “The foot is on the pedal – we have to just start accelerating. On a serious note, I am happy to do another start-up in broadcast and media. The Board is full of friends from the industry and I am looking forward to working with them and make BARC happen.”

A general management professional having experience in diverse consumer industries and media management experience in print, television and out of home.

A keen observer of consumer and media trends, Dasgupta is now in the leadership team of Educomp,an education company. His career has been in media and consumer industries where he did large and small startup media projects.

He also had an entrepreneurial stint where he cofounded a media company. He also advised media startups and venture firms and their invested companies on brand strategies earlier.

Dasgupta has led startup teams and management teams of Times Now, Future Media, The Economic Times and Times Multimedia.

IPG Mediabrands India CEO Shashi Sinha is the chairman of the technical committee of BARC.

BARC was officially launched in March 2012. It aims to set up a transparent and credible television audience measurement system in India, which is expected to give out its first report by March 2014.

It would be the umbrella body and television audience measurement service providers like TAM Media Research, a joint venture of Nielsen and Kantar, will function under it for the purpose of providing ratings.

BARC is 60 per cent owned by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) and 20 per cent each by the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA).