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Developing
a new television audience rating system is a long, arduous
and costly process. It has required as a prerequisite that
the three major stakeholders – IBF, AAAI and ISA come
together under one umbrella (BARC) and agree on a process
acceptable to all three parties to ensure this major initiative
is accepted by all stakeholders. The industry expects to be
well along in implementing this new measurement system by
the end of 2013.
The
goal of BARC is to bring about transparency in the measurement
system, greater accuracy while maintaining cost efficiencies
and more checks and balances by separating responsibilities
in the measurement process as well as countering fraud through
rigorous ground monitoring. The industry recognises that no
sampling technique can be 100 per cent accurate but seeks
to reduce the sampling error and overcome to the extent possible
the laws of small samples.
The
first step in the process is to create a transparent establishment
study from which the universe can be projected that will be
owned by BARC and available to all stakeholders. To this end,
an RFI has been issued and based on the responses, an RFP
will follow. Once a firm is selected, approximate 350,000
to 450,000 households on a nationwide basis will participate
in an extensive survey that will take 6 – 8 months to
complete.
The
establishment survey will form the base for the required number
of measurement homes which are likely to exceed 25,000 nationwide.
Once the number is finalised, new RFPs will be issued to select
a vendor for the measurement system, and vendors for data
collection and analysis and reporting. Breaking apart these
tasks amongst different vendors is expected to bring greater
accountability and transparency and build the most robust
audience measurement system in the world. Ongoing ground monitoring
will ensure that the system is not compromised over time.
Given
the expense of setting up the system, the time required and
the fact that all stakeholders buy into ‘BARC’,
the industry expects the BARC measurement system will become
the single measurement system in India. This is typical of
worldwide audience measurement where generally a given market
has only one accepted measurement currency.
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