Dark months loom ahead for broadcasters

With TAM set to be out of action and an alternative rating system still in the works, the TV business is headed for chaos

New Delhi January 29, 2014 - Broadcasters and media planners are a worried lot these days. That's because there is a big question mark over the viewership ratings of television shows. In fact, the next set of numbers might emerge only in October, that too if things go like clockwork. That's nine months away. Till then the allocation of advertising budgets to television channels and shows could be driven by gut feel and historical data - not a very scientific way of doing things.

Such a situation has emerged because TAM Media Research, the only company that offers television ratings at the moment, has no option but to stop operations by February 15, thanks to a new set of guidelines released by the Union information & broadcasting ministry earlier this month. (More of it later.) WPP-owned Kantar Group, one of the two promoters of TAM, has gone to court against the ministry's directive. Till the court gives its judgement, everybody will be on tenterhooks. Meanwhile, the Broadcast Audience Research Council, or BARC, an industry body in charge of providing the new TV ratings, is still in the process of putting its infrastructure in place.