Called TeleWeb Audience Measurement, the service will measure audiences across multiple screens, including television, desktop and mobile websites. The service will start with a sample spread across six metros (Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad) and will be reported on a monthly basis.
New Delhi: Television ratings agency TAM Media Research Pvt. Ltd and market research firm IMRB International on Tuesday joined hands to start a data service that will measure audiences across multiple screens, including television, desktop, mobile apps and websites. Called TeleWeb Audience Measurement, it will work as a media planning tool for an integrated media environment and marks the fusion of television viewership data from TAM India and WAM (Web Audience Measurement) data from IMRB International.
“TeleWeb Audience Measurement will provide data and analytics on the consumption of content across television and online platforms like desktop and mobile websites, mobile applications and YouTube authors through multi-screens like computers (desktops/laptops), mobile handsets and tablets,” said a joint statement by both companies.
The service will start with a sample spread across six metros (Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad) and will be reported on a monthly basis. This data will be measured in terms of reach in millions.
“Content consumption has been transitioning across media platforms, especially television and online. Hence, understanding cross-media consumption patterns at one go and planning advertising investments was imperative. The future is all about cross-media planning. TAM India and IMRB International were quick to realize that and are all set to revolutionize the industry through the launch of TeleWeb Audience Measurement. It is a win-win situation for both the mediums as it will create mutual pull of advertising investments,” said L.V. Krishnan, chief executive, TAM Media Research. TAM will continue to publish its weekly TV ratings alongside.
In a year, an estimated Rs.17,000 crore of ad money is spent on both television and digital cumulatively, added Krishnan. “Digital media accounts for 11% of this total. Over 50% of this is spent on video advertising online.”
TeleWeb will also measure reach and frequency of ad campaigns across multiple screens.
Last month, a truce between competing television rating agencies—Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) and TAM Media Research—led to the formation of a new meter management company that will be the sole ratings provider for the broadcast industry.
The new service will not just help content owners such as Star India’s mobile app hotstar and Mumbai-based film producer Eros International Plc’s online channel Eros Now but also advertisers and broadcasters who want to be present across multi-media platforms.
“With content increasingly becoming platform-agnostic, we believe this is an important step in measuring the total reach across platforms. Besides providing the content owners an understanding of the size and profile of their audiences across digital and TV, TeleWeb Audience Measurement will also help advertisers identify new, interesting and cost-efficient communication opportunities.
“For digital publishers with video content, TeleWeb Audience Measurement will help in benchmarking themselves vis-à-vis TV channels,” said Hemant Mehta, senior vice-president, IMRB International.
Presently, WAM’s Internet panel-based audience measurement platform tracks Internet usage behaviour among active users in India and has a sample size of 6,075 respondents across six metros. This will be fused with TAM viewership data of 10,936 individuals from the six metros.
WAM tracks URLs (uniform resource locator) surfed from user machines and mobile handsets to provide a complete view of consumption habits of audiences across digital properties. The fused output of WAM and TAM data will be made available through a client software interface called Video Xpress for a subscription fee.
According to digital agency executives, the online medium in itself is very measurable. However, if this new data service has significant value additions, and justifies spends on the medium, media agencies will be happy to use it.
“The (online) medium in itself is very measurable in terms of action, reaction, shares, likes, comments, purchase of items, etc. If there is an agency that can justify spends and return on investment in the medium, then it will be very exciting. The data has to value-add to what is already available. There is an opportunity to create value if they help create predictive analysis and trends, draw clear insights, etc.,” said Anusha Shetty, chief executive at Autumn Worldwide, a Bengaluru-based digital media agency.
(लाइव मिंट में प्रकाशित Vidhi Choudhary की रिपोर्ट.)
