MUMBAI: The TV ratings saga in India has got a new twist, if Network18’s Storyboard18 is to be believed. According to an unconfirmed report filed with it, the erstwhile TV viewership monitoring body TAM Media is seeking to take a majority stake in its 49: 51 joint venture with BARC - Meterology Data  Pvt Ltd (MDPL), the meter management company which manages panel operations for India’s  current TV audience measurement system.

MDPL deploys and maintains the meters that form the TV panel, as per sample design specifications and guidelines laid down by the BARC technical committee, and supplies raw data to it which in turn provides it to channels, agencies and marketers.

To get some perspective, TAM has been pursuing the ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) to issue it a licence to monitor viewership of India’s television landscape, a role it performed prior to BARC taking charge, following a section of the industry’s disgruntlement with the former. But the MIB has yet to decide on its application.

Currently, management control of MDPL lies in BARC’s hands,  which provides TV viewership figures, while TAM provides advertising expenditure, radio listenership and sports related data.

A section of the industry believes that with TAM taking majority control of MDPL, a reverse merger between the two would be a logical conclusion, the storyboard18 report states, quoting anonymous sources, The other option is that TAM gets a licence and television in India has two ratings agencies, which will be unaffordable to the media and advertising industry because of the huge costs involved, explains the storyboard18 report.

 It adds that TAM (a 50:50 joint venture between Nielsen and Kantar Media) will also have to undergo shareholding structural changes with media agency Group M exiting from Kantar Media (on account of conflict of interest, as per Indian regulations) before the MIB can issue it a licence. 

Picture courtesy Hathway annual report)