TAM Media Research is a joint venture company between AC Nielsen and

Kantar A kantar is the official Egyptian weight unit for measuring cotton. It corresponds to the US hundredweight, and is roughly equal to 99.05 pounds, or 45.02 kilogram The kilogram (also spelled kilogramme) is the base unit of mass in the Inte ...

Media Research/ IMRB. It is one of the two

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

Audience measurement Audience measurement calculates how many people are in an audience, usually in relation to radio listenership and television viewership, but also in relation to newspaper and magazine readership and, increasingly, web traffic. The term is someti ...

analysis

firm A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

s of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

(the other being aMap). Besides measuring television viewership, TAM also monitors

advertising Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a Product (business), product or Service (economics), service. Advertising aims to present a product or service in terms of utility, advantages, and qualities of int ...

expenditure through its division AdEx India. It exists in the PR Monitoring space through another division – Eikona PR Monitor. The viewership cell runs what is one of the largest Peoplemeter TV Panels in the World with approximately 30,000 sample individuals representing all the Class-I towns (towns with population more than 100,000) polled every week for their Viewership habits. This division measures television Viewership of audiences for the 300-plus TV stations operating in India.

Monopoly

The company had enjoyed a

monopoly A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek and ) is a market in which one person or company is the only supplier of a particular good or service. A monopoly is characterized by a lack of economic Competition (economics), competition to produce ...

in the television ratings market in India till 2015.

Monopoly Ends

Broadcast Audience Research Council ( BARC India) was being propelled as an alternate TV viewership measurement system to the incumbent, TAM Media Research. TAM, a 50:50 joint venture between Nielsen and Kantar Media, was then responsible for the ratings that decide the fate of the `22,000 crore spending on TV advertising. It enjoyed a virtual monopoly, but its job left a lot to be desired. BARC India was planned and executed as an alternative to TAM Media Research Pvt. Ltd. It was set up as per guidelines of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India. It is mandated to design, commission, supervise, and own a television audience measurement system for India, and provides Indian broadcast sector with a real-time television rating points (TRP) measurement system. Here is the inside story of the BARC-TAM deal
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References

{{Reflist

External links

Official website
Research and analysis firms