“If reports are to be believed, officers of the BCCI’s Indian Premier League are in contact with TAM executives on a daily basis to ensure that ICL’s television ratings remain poor.”
Seeks clarifications from TV audience measurement agency over “inconsistencies in ratings”
MUMBAI:
“If reports are to be believed, officers of the BCCI’s Indian Premier League (IPL) are in contact with TAM executives on a daily basis to ensure that ICL’s television ratings remain poor.”
— Mark David, Melbourne Review
Lines like these and more, in a report that appeared in an Australian weekly, have stirred the hornet’s nest between the Indian Cricket League (ICL) and India’s most trusted television audience measurement agency, TAM Media Research, over “certain inconsistencies in their reports on viewer ratings of ICL Season 2”.
Essel Sports Pvt Ltd is now awaiting a clarification from TAM on the same, arguing that analysis by aMap, another TV audience measurement agency, reveals that the second season of the ICL has “a significant growth in the overall number of viewers”, compared to the first season.
Data from aMap also shows that the average television ratings in ICL’s second season climbed to 0.95 from 0.61 in the first season last year.
The issue has brought into focus an oft-debated issue in media circles — are the 15,000+ people-meter boxes used by TAM and aMap for TV audience measurement enough of a sample to reflect the viewing patterns of the country, which has over 85 million cable TV homes?
Media planners and advertisers hold TAM as the official benchmark for deciding which media properties to spend their advertising monies on. However, the lack of expansion in the sample size used, despite the growth in the number of television households, increasing number of TV channels and niche media consumption patterns has now resulted in issues like the recent controversy, wherein ICL has approached the media directly, when it couldn’t get a response from TAM.
ICL’s second season is being telecast on three channels — Ten Sports, Zee Sports and Zee Smile. According to aMap, this has given the series a cumulative reach of 23 million viewers in the target group of C&S (cable & satellite households) — male (15+ yrs). For the target group of C&S 4+yrs, the reach is even higher at 51 million according to aMap.
Essel Sports had been betting on ICL 2 to hit the nail, through aggressive marketing and promotions, apart from format changes.
An official communique from Essel Sports states: “We have analysed the ratings reports published by both agencies and are of the view that recent ratings by TAM of ICL matches telecast on Zee Sports and Ten Sports are inconsistent with past trends, with its own figures for other sporting properties as also with figures reported by aMap. In particular, Essel Sports has requested TAM to explain why TAM ratings which show a distinct pattern of 1:2 to 1:3 as compared to aMap ratings for various sporting properties should not reflect the same pattern in respect of ICL matches alone.”
TAM officials could not be reached for official comment, but it is understood that they have assured Essel Sports to probe into the issue. Essel Sports has also forwarded to TAM the article from the Melbourne Review, which it claims has been recently circulated online, which “casts serious doubts about the credibility of television ratings in India”, as it can impact television advertisement placement and pricing.
c_arcopol@dnaindia.net
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}