TAM Media Research
TAM Media Research Pvt Ltd., (abbreviated TAM)is a joint venture company between AC Nielsen and Kantar Media Research/IMRB. It is one of the two television Audience measurement analysis firms of India (the other being aMap). Appointed by the Joint Industry stakeholders of Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA), Indian Broadcast Foundation (IBF) and Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) in 1998.
About TAM
TAM runs the central, industry authorized, TV viewership cell for the media industry. TAM India’s panel is among the top five in the world with the largest sample size: 33,500 respondents/individuals across 164 cities and towns covered by 8150 peoplemeters in TV homes of Class I towns (all towns and cities with a population of 1 Lac+) and Semi Rural Towns (Less than 1 Lac population) from the state of Maharashtra.
TAM initiated a study in 2006 that for the first time focused on the prospect of Digital Television in India. The study was presented to the Industry in April 2006. Post that, since 2007, TAM has been reporting TV Viewership data for Terrestrial TV Homes, Cable & Satellite TV Homes and the Digital TV Homes. For this, TAM proactively introduced the internationally acclaimed, highly advanced, platform neutral digital TVM5 peoplemeter.
Besides measuring TV Viewership, since the year 2000, TAM has been monitoring Advertising Expenditure of various Advertisers, Brands and Product Categories across Television Channels, Print & Radio through its division AdEx India. This division offers three verticals of services:
1. Advertising Expenditure Analysis
2. Advertising Monitoring of Competition
3. Conventional and Innovative Print Advertising Creative Archives
4. AdEx India offers Indian advertising analysis data across 15 different India Languages and monitors close to 700 various product categories.
a. TV AdEx focuses on TV advertising monitoring and analytics of TV Channels distributed through the platforms of Terrestrial, Cable & Satellite and Digital Technologies.
b. Print AdEx focuses on advertising trends of product categories and brands across more than 1000 newspapers and magazines from various corners of the country.
c. Radio AdEx, set up in collaboration with AirCheck USA, monitors radio advertising trends of 52 Radio Stations across 9 cities of India.
5. S-Group, a Specialist Strategy Group within TAM Media Research looks into Audience Analytics and Broadcast Management. With its vision to pioneer the science of broadcast management, TAM set up S-Group in 2002 to measure media content and viewership analysis. S-Group works in a number of areas for broadcasters and develops analytic tools for better understanding of new TV consumption trends and concepts. S-Group helps broadcasters understand TV Viewing dynamics with respect to changes in Scheduling, Distribution, Content and Marketing & Promotional initiatives undertaken by the broadcaster. Through extensive data analysis and research, TAM has been able to promote TV program brands of various Broadcasters, increase viewership and target the selected market segment. The last ten years of S-Group’s extensive research and data mining has helped Broadcasters better leverage the concepts of In-Programme Product Placements, TV Planning Optimisers, ROI, Connectivity and Distribution’s impact on TV Channels and Program Promotions.
In 2004, TAM Media research extended its presence in the domain of PR Measurement & Audits space for Corporate/Marketing Clients by setting up a separate division – Eikona PR Measurement. Eikona offers PR Measurement and Audit services for Brands and their PR Campaigns across TV News Channels, Newspapers & Magazines, Websites and the Social Media. It also offers advisories to Corporates and their PR and Communication strategy on a project basis.
In 2007, the joint venture introduced RAM (Radio Audio Measurement) service to track Radio Listenership for the Indian Radio Broadcast Industry. RAM services are currently basis continuous listenership studies from the four Indian Metros – Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore & Kolkata.
RAM measures Listenership trends both In-Home and Out-of-Home - In Car, At Work, College, School etc. RAM offers a new level of insight into radio listening behavior with the most accurate and reliable ratings estimate available. With the use of Diary Methodology (Proven Measurement System – World Over) RAM provides listenership data for all the broadcasters in the present market.
TAM Sports was launched in April 2009 with the purpose of providing monitoring, understanding and assessing returns from Sports Sponsorship. This specialized division empowers Sponsors/Advertisers to evaluate returns across all Sporting Events, in India and Internationally. This specialized division evaluates returns from standard commercial TV advertising, TV product placement, Media coverage/PR in Rupee/Dollar terms as well as Audience exposure in terms of TV Viewership of the particular sporting event.[1]
Major Development
In a major shake-up in the broadcasting industry in June-2013, some of India’s biggest television networks have decided to stop using Television Audience Measurement (TAM) Media Research data. While channels have complained against what they see as TAM’s ‘unfair trade practices’ and ‘flawed methodology’ for years, this is the first time broadcasters have decided to boycott the system altogether.
Multi-Screen Media (MSM) — owner of the Sony Network of Channels[2] — the Times Television Network and the New Delhi Television (NDTV) have written to TAM to withdraw from the system. Network 18, which owns CNN-IBN and CNBC among other channels, has a subscription with TAM till December, but has decided ‘in principle’ to withdraw and ask TAM to refund their fees. If that does not happen, sources said they would forsake the amount and walk out. Other networks are expected to follow suit soon.
Even as the universe of television households is increasing, TAM data shows decreasing viewership. Broadcasting Industry has objected to this major flaw that shows their own ruin. TAM's panel size of 9000 metres is ridiculous for a country of India’s size and heterogeneity. Audiences are growing but TAM shows declining viewers to prevent ad rates from going up. This is because WPP, which owns 50 per cent of TAM, owns 60 per cent of advertising agencies in town. An example of high level inaccuracy is how last week’s TAM data had shown CNBC to have a zero rating in Delhi.
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) has been pursuing and pressuring the industry to come up with an independent and transparent model of viewership measurement, and said it will welcome any move that reflects viewership truly.
The Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) has been working on creating its own industry measurement body, Broadcasting Audience Research Council (BARC), which will have separate entities installing metres, collecting data and analysing data. Forty eight vendors have expressed interest, and the IBF hopes to have the system up and running by March, 2014. Till then, the industry sources said, broadcasters, who had chosen to unsubscribe from TAM, and advertisers could work out separate indicators to assess a channel’s reach and popularity.[3]