MEDIA & OUTREACH

Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India has announced the appointment of Dr Bikramjit Chaudhuri as its new Chief of Measurement Science & Analytics. He will succeed Dr Derrick Gray, a veteran Audience Measurement and Advanced Analytics executive, who has been a well-respected member of the BARC India family for six incredible years.

23rd May 2023; Mumbai
Broadcast Audience Research Council India (BARC), the world’s largest Television Audience measurement body, today announced the appointment of Ms Dolly Jha as its Chief of Product & Research.
Ms Jha is a Postgraduate in Management from IRMA and has an experience of close to three decades across KANTAR, ITC Foods & Nielsen. She comes with a rich experience across Consumer Research, Audience Measurement, Media Analytics, ROI Measurement and Innovation Research.

25th March 2022; Mumbai, India

Shashi Sinha, Chief Executive Officer at IPG Mediabrands India, has been unanimously elected as the new Chairman of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC India) by the Board following its meeting held on 25th March 2022. Mr. Sinha, who also represents the Advertising Agencies Association of India as its Board member, has played a key role in the formation of BARC. He takes over from Mr, Punit Goenka, MD & CEO, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd., who successfully served as the Chairman for the last three years. 

March 17, 2022; Mumbai, India
BARC India has resumed the ratings for individual news channels with the release of data for Week 10, 2022 today.
Following an industry-wide consultative process, the BARC Team, along with the BARC TechComm, developed the Augmented Data Reporting Standards for News and Special Interest genres, aligned with the industry’s needs. As per these revised approved standards, audience estimates for these genres will only be released based on a 4-week rolling average, every week.

Monday, 07 February 2022

BARC India, and the industry at large, welcomes the Ministry of I&B’s directive to resume the release of data for individual News channels. The data will be released as per the Augmented Data Reporting Standards for News and Special Interest genres.

BARC India is currently working towards ensuring the seamless release of individual news channel data and intends to commence release with effect from our reporting Week 10, 2022. As per our reporting cycle, this data will be released to the market on Thursday, 17th March 2022. We have communicated the same to our clients and stakeholders.

Dr. Derrick Gray, Chief of Measurement Science & Business Analytics at BARC India, has been appointed as the Vice-President of the Market Research Society of India (MRSI).

20th August 2021. Mumbai

Broadcast Audience Research Council India (BARC), the Industry’s Television Audience measurement body, today announced Mr. Nakul Chopra as its new Chief Executive Officer effective 25th August 2021.

August 05, 2021; Mumbai, India:

BARC India has been at the helm of authentically reporting the Television Viewership across Genres, Languages, Geographies, and Demographics to enable the industry with a robust trading currency. Following the saying, “People hear statistics, but they feel stories”, through its latest campaign, BARC India wants to tap into the varied emotions and experiences viewers go through while consuming content.

Mumbai, India; April 15, 2021:
World’s largest and India’s reliable television measurement body, Broadcast Audience Research Council India (BARC India), is committed to providing the industry with a currency that is a credible and trustworthy representation of What India Watches™.

 “The Year After Two Thousand & Nineteen”

Who says India slowed down!

Ad volumes of H2 2020 grew 34% over H1 2020

HUL was the biggest advertiser followed by the Reckitt Benckiser Group

Mumbai, January 11, 2021

In a challenging year for India and the world, it was reassuring to see an increase in ad volumes on TV in the second half of 2020. Hindustan Unilever was the biggest advertiser in 2020 with a 30% growth in ad volumes over 2019, followed by the Reckitt Benckiser Group, with their ad volumes growing by 37% in 2020 over 2019.

BARC India renames Impressions to Average Minute Audience (AMA) in line with global standards

December 2, 2020; Mumbai

Keeping in line with global television measurement standards, the world’s largest and India’s sole television measurement body, BARC India, will transition from using the term ‘Impressions’ to ‘Average Minute Audience’, abbreviated as ‘AMA’, in cognizance with the Technical Committee.

BARC India dismayed at misrepresentation of its communication by Republic Network

October 18, 2020

BARC India has not commented on the ongoing investigation and it is providing necessary assistance to the law enforcement agency. BARC India is highly disappointed with the actions of the Republic Network by disclosing private and confidential communications and misrepresenting the same. 

BARC REMAINS COMMITTED TO ITS STAKEHOLDERS 

October 17, 2020. Over the last several days, there have been various news reports as regard to Television Ratings and Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC India). BARC India as an Industry body has representation from bodies that represent Broadcasters, Advertisers, and Advertising and Media Agencies. BARC India owns and manages a transparent, accurate and inclusive TV audience measurement system.  

Business Standard: October 16, 2020

The last one week has been a roller coaster for the Broadcast Audience Research Council, or BARC India, the world’s largest audience measurement system, after the Mumbai police claimed to have busted a scam where three channels were paying sample homes to watch their channels. On Thursday, BARC announced it would pause the publication of weekly data for news channels for 8-12 weeks. BARC CEO Sunil Lulla speaks to Vanita Kohli-Khandekar about the controversy. 

BARC TO PAUSE AUDIENCE ESTIMATES (RATINGS) OF NEWS CHANNELS  

Genre Level Ratings, by State and Language to Continue

Mumbai, October 15, 2020. In the light of the recent developments, BARC Board has proposed that it’s Technical Committee (Tech Comm) review and augment the current standards of measuring and reporting the data of niche genres, to improve their statistical robustness and to significantly hamper the potential attempts of infiltrating the panel homes. This exercise would cover all Hindi, Regional, English News and Business News channels with immediate effect.  

BARC Media Statement

Mumbai, October 8, 2020

“As in all our previous cases of suspected panel homes intrusions,  BARC India continues to follow its established vigilance and disciplinary guidelines. BARC remains steadfastly true to its purpose to accurately and faithfully report ‘What India Watches’. BARC India appreciates the efforts of the Mumbai Police and will provide the support asked of it. BARC's Board appointed Disciplinary Committee has a stringent and robust disciplinary process in place for any errant intervention.“

September 03, 2020: As a part of its ongoing ‘Data Validation Quality Initiative’ aimed at improving measurement science and mitigating impact on viewership of extraneous factors, BARC India

BARC India & Nielsen Media Explain ‘Impact Of COVID-19 On TV Viewership And Smartphone Behaviour Across India – Edition 11’ ~ 27th August 2020, Mumbai: This is the eleventh edition of the report on ‘Crisis Consumption on TV and Smartphones’ jointly released by BARC India and Nielsen Media. BARC India

From July 2020, BARC India clients will have access to data solely through YUMI Analytics     Mumbai, June 29, 2020   World’s largest and India’s only television measurement company, Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India, will complete transitioning to its upgraded, versatile and user-friendly software interface, YUMI Analytics, starting July 1

Mumbai, May 20, 2020   World’s largest television measurement company, Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India and Meterology Data Pvt Ltd (MDL) that manages panel homes and operations resumes the servicing panel homes in areas classified as ‘Green Zones’ by the government across India. Built on the back of robust technology, BARC India

29th May 2020, Mumbai: This is the ninth edition of the report on ‘Crisis Consumption on TV and Smartphones’ jointly released by BARC India and Nielsen Media. BARC India is the official currency on Television Measurement in India and Nielsen Media runs a 12000 strong smartphone panel in India

BARC India & Nielsen Explain The Impact Of COVID -19 On TV And Digital Media Behaviour Across India

Post taking tough action against the accused involved in TV ratings (TRP) manipulation in, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Assam in 2018-2019, MDPL’s service partner registered a FIR in Hyderabad, acting on which the Telangana police have filed a charge-sheet. The accused were connected with two channels in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana region.

The world’s largest Television Audience measurement company today announced a change in leadership.
 

India’s sole television measurement company, Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India, had appointed an oversight committee in June 2019, to review its data validation and outlier policy which identifies and eliminates outliers including reach outliers. The two-member committee led by Nakul Chopra and Praveen Tripathi has successfully submitted its report to the board. The committee conducted an extensive review of the entire process and presented a very detailed assessment of the ongoing practice.  
 

India’s sole TV viewership measurement company, BARC India, which also operates the largest TV panel in the world, recently collaborated with India’s premier Institute for Management Education– The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) to undertake a review of the current sample design and methodology. 
 

India’s sole TV viewership measurement company and the world’s largest audience measurement company, BARC India, today launched a new online service called the “Self-Service Portal”. Aimed at empowering professionals who are in the business of data and analytics, the Self-Service Portal offers a wide-range of TV viewership and audience analytics reports at the click of a few buttons.
 

18 cases reported to Disciplinary Committee in 28 months. Action taken against 12 channels. 

BARC India, the world's largest measurement panel, today announced that it would start reporting viewership from free & pay platforms separately starting week 27 (29th June – 5th July). 

India’s sole TV viewership measurement company and the world’s largest TV audience measurement service, BARC India, joined hands with the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, the country’s premier management education institute, to curate a report on BARC India’s TV panel sample sizes. The report presented to BARC India summarizes the review, analysis, and recommendations for the sample design of BARC India’s panel. On sample sizes in general, the report states that an ideal sample size depends on many factors and, therefore, ‘there is no unique nor ideal solution’.

India’s sole TV viewership measurement company and the world’s largest audience measurement service, BARC India, today announced the launch of its new pathbreaking product “PrimaVU” which is aimed at measuring viewership from premium homes.  Through “PrimaVU”, BARC India also introduces the industry first concept of “Viewing Minutes” which is basically sum of all individuals watching an Event basis the time spent by them. Also, PrimaVU is a separate product and not part of the currency panel measurement. 
 

In a move to strengthen its product and partnerships portfolio with greater market focus and customer orientation, BARC India has roped in Aaditya Pathak as Executive Vice President-Partnerships & Growth and elevated Elbert D’silva to lead the Product Leadership and Excellence Team. In their new roles, both Aaditya & Elbert will report to Romil Ramgarhia, COO of BARC India.
 

BARC India, the audience measurement and analytics body has added another offering to its suite of rich insight products. The company that had launched its Out of Home (OOH) TV viewership measurement service in 2018, has decided to significantly expand the offering this year.
 

Punit Goenka, MD & CEO, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL) has been elected as the new Chairman of TV Viewership measurement company, BARC India by the Board at its meeting held on 29th Jan. Punit will be taking over from Nakul Chopra who successfully completed his one year tenure as Chairman of the Joint Industry Body.

In a bid to seek Next Gen technology solutions to better meet the needs of TV audience measurement in India, Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India has partnered with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). The partnership is also in line with BARC India’s philosophy of providing robust TV viewership measurement to the country of 197 million TV homes.
 

Emerged winner in the Service- Medium-sized Enterprise category at the 5th CII Industrial Innovation Awards. BARC India also recognized among the Top 25 Most Innovative Companies in India.

BARC India that recently released its Broadcast India (BI) 2018 Survey has come out with some interesting insights from South India.

BARC India has released the findings of its Broadcast India (BI) 2018 Survey, based on a sample study of 3 lakh homes in the country. As per the latest BI 2018 Survey, TV homes in the country have seen a 7.5% jump, outpacing the growth of homes in India which grew at 4.5%. India currently boasts of 298 million homes, of which 197 million have a TV set, having an opportunity of almost 100mn more TV homes in the country. 
 

BARC India that recently launched Out of Home (OOH) Viewership measurement has come out with some interesting television viewing trends.
 

BARC India already manages the largest TV panel in the world. And now, its sampling methodology and panel design has been certified by one of India’s most prestigious institutions – the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata. The certification is for the original design of 22,000 homes and the expanded 33,000 panel.
 

BARC India has expanded its TV viewership measurement service by entering a totally new segment beyond traditional viewing at home. Leveraging its Audio Watermarking technology and proven measurement capabilities, BARC India has launched Out Of Home (OOH) TV viewership measurement. With this, BARC India will now be able to report TV viewership that happens in social hot-spots like restaurants, pubs and bars in select cities.
 

BARC India’s vigilance team has upped its drive against panel home infiltrators. After taking tough action against those involved in panel home manipulation in Karnataka, BARC India has now got a FIR filed against culprits in Telangana. 
 

BARC India has added another feather to its cap. It has been certified as ‘Great Place to Work’ for cultivating a culture of high trust and high performance.
 

BARC India has taken a big step towards using Return Path Data (RPD) for TV Viewership measurement. BARC India has tied up Airtel Digital TV, Airtel’s DTH arm, for including its subscriber homes into the BARC India RPD Panel. This partnership will provide fillip to
BARC India’s plan of scaling up panel homes to multiples of the mandated 50,000.
 

Nakul Chopra, currently President AAAI and Senior Advisor, Publicis Communications has been elected as the next Chairman of BARC India. Nakul succeeds Viacom18 Group CEO Sudhanshu Vats, who successfully completed his one-year tenure as Chairman.
 

TV viewership measurement in India is set to get a boost. In a major development, BARC India has partnered with cable distribution giant DEN Networks for measuring TV viewership using Return Path Data (RPD) via its digital set top boxes (STBs).
 

As part of its continuing efforts in bringing real-life learnings from best practices from Indian Industry into the class room, India’s premier management institute IIM Calcutta has developed a a case study on the TV viewership system in India. The case study traces the history of Television Viewership Measurement, leading up to the setting up of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India.
 

After setting up a robust TV viewership measurement system, BARC India is gearing for a successful launch of EKAM, its digital viewership measurement venture. In keeping with its policy of transparency and inclusivity, BARC India, is hosting a series of multi-city roadshows for members of the digital ecosystem. This is part of the planned rollout of its digital measurement products under the EKAM brand.
 

BARC India, the TV viewership measurement provider in India, has expanded its leadership team with the addition of two senior resources. BARC India has roped in Rohit Sarma as the Business Head for its TV business and Kumar Rao as the Chief of Measurement Science. Both of them will be based out of BARC India’s Mumbai office.
 

BARC India has taken another significant step towards launching its much awaited digital measurement service. After announcing that its products will be made available under the umbrella brand EKAM  (Sanskrit for “One”), BARC India has appointed Nielsen India as its primary digital measurement partner. Nielsen will fuse its global experience with India-specific adaptations to meet unique needs of the Indian market.
 

The representativeness of BARC India’s Panel – the cornerstone of its TV Viewership measurement system – has been certified by CESP, a global multi-media body that audits media research. CESP is a joint industry committee that specializes in audience measurement audits and has worked in more than 20 countries. The certification further strengthens BARC India’s credentials of capturing “What India Watches”, basis a truly representative TV panel.
 

BARC India today announced the phased roll-out of its much-awaited digital measurement service along with the brand name and logo of its digital measurement products. The digital products will be launched under the brand name EKAM (Sanskrit for “One”). The logo of EKAM draws inspiration from the four colors (Red, Blue, Yellow and Green) as BARC India.

India’s sole TV viewership measurement company, BARC India, has set up an independent Disciplinary Council to further strengthen transparency and credibility of its measurement system. The 6-member BARC India Disciplinary Council (BDC) will investigate and address complaints related to viewership malpractices and tampering of BARC India’s measurement system.
 

BARC India today released its weekly viewership data basis a revised Universe Estimate (UE), which is based on the results of Broadcast India Survey - the largest ever Research Study undertaken to ascertain TV universe & Television Viewing Habits in India.  With this, BARC India has updated and aligned its TV Universe in line with ground level changes in demographics, TV ownership and connection type, language preference, changes in NCCS profiles etc.
 

BARC India Board has elected Sudhanshu Vats, Group CEO, Viacom 18 as its new Chairman. The move comes in after Punit Goenka, MD & CEO Zee Entertainment successfully completed his tenure  as BARC India Chairman.
 

After building a strong TV Viewership measurement company in the country, BARC India has now called Request for Proposals (RFPs) from professional consultancy service providers who would provide strategic consultancy to BARC India subscribers. 

BARC India and Kerala TV Federation (KTF) together have filed a police complaint with the Director General of Kerala police. The case was filed after BARC India’s vigilance team received constant complaints regarding attempts to retrieve addresses of BARC India panel homes and influencing them. KTF is a trade body representing Malayalam channels in Kerala. 
 

BARC India has appointed Jamie Kenney as Business Head- Digital. The move is a part of BARC India’s plan of launching digital audience measurement in the country.
 

BARC India launched its TV audience measurement service more than a year ago.  Media professionals and analysts working at various Broadcasters, Media Agencies and Advertisers have been trained on the BARC India Media Workstation (BMW), a powerful software application specially designed to analyse media and advertising audience results.

Eight months after it launched it TV Ratings service, the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India has re-named its popular viewership measurement metric Rat'000 as Impressions'000. Going forward (viz. with effect from on Thursday, 14 January when data for Week1/2016 is released) the current Rat'000s will be referred to as Impressions '000s. Users of BARC India data may note that the new terminology does not imply any change in the way television viewership is measured.

Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India has achieved another significant milestone within the very first year of its operations: the subscriber base of TV channels who have signed up for its Watermarking Technology has crossed the 400 mark: 429 to be precise! If one takes into account the various language feeds of channels, that number actually climbs to 457, as BARC India is watermarking 28 language feeds separately.

ARC INDIA TO LAUNCH RURAL DATA FROM WEEK 41

The Board members of the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India have decided to release the much awaited rural data, starting next week.

The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India has issued a global Request for Information (RFI) as it readies itself to expand audience measurement to the digital space.
 

On the heels of successful rollout of All India data, BARC India is happy to share one more important development with you.

Based on feedback received from our subscribers, and in the pursuit of providing sharper consumer insights, we are launching a monthly communique, Alpha Club.

V VIEWERSHIP MEASUREMENT GOES RURAL WITH BARC INDIA’S ALL INDIA DATA
 
The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India today released the much awaited All India data, which includes rural India, a first in the country.  
 

The Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC India), the television rating company formed by broadcasters, advertising agencies and advertisers today appointed Nielsen as the agency to conduct India’s largest Universe Estimation study on television ownership & viewing habits.

BARC India, the television rating company formed by broadcasters, advertising agencies and advertisers and TAM India, the television audience measurement joint venture between Nielsen and Kantar, today announced the formation of a new Meter management company.

At a function in Ahmedabad today, Team Make In India conferred the 'Make In India Award for Excellence -2015' to BARC India.

Television rating agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India has said it will start reporting data for urban and rural population with less than 1 lakh from next month.

We are happy to announce that BARC India, a Joint Industry Body (JIB) has been granted Registration for operating as Television Rating Agency under the Policy Guidelines for Television Rating Agencies in India by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

It’s been a month now since BARC India launched services with week 16 data from a panel of about 12,000 households from cities and towns with population more than 100,000 all India. This includes states like Jammu Kashmir, North East and Goa, which were never measured earlier.

QUOTE FROM MR. PARTHO DASGUPTA, CEO – BARC India

"The journey of Solving this Puzzle brings us to another interesting milestone as we start reporting both Individual and Household viewership ratings data. While all Broadcasters were using the household data to their benefit – now with individual data releasing, media planners, buyers and advertisers will make the most of it too. This is the next launch in series of phased launches for the world's largest and most modern audience measurement system."

The World's largest and future ready television audience measurement service in India crosses another milestone in its history.

BARC India continues the evolution of India's TV rating system with its latest innovation - #BARCTweet. In partnership with Twitter, BARC India, the world's largest and future ready television audience measurement service, now gives TV viewers as well as industry insiders, weekly ratings data on-the-go and delivered almost instantly right to their Twitter timeline.

BARC India is looking at adding more broadcasters and agencies from the industry as subscribers by offering them various sops. 

BARC India currently has more than 370 channels and agencies on board as subscribers, which comprise approximately 94 per cent of the total viewership of channels in India, whereas the agencies control about 95 per cent of the ad spends on television. 

The Seismograph helps measure an earthquake, BARC India's BMW software helps analyze and gain rare insights on Television audience viewership measurement and analytics in times of hell, distraught and celebration.

Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC India) India has appointed Dr. Sumit Chowdhury as Technical Advisor to the organisation. This is a move to align and streamline technology processes since almost 76% of BARC India spends are on technology.

Mumbai, India, August 4, 2014 - Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India has appointed Romil Ramgarhia as Chief Business Officer of the organisation. This is a move to strengthen its core management team as BARC INDIA moves closer to the launch of its services. In his new role, Romil will report into Partho Dasgupta, CEO of BARC INDIA.