BARC to provide digital measurement
Audience measurement agency Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) has announced the phased rollout of a digital measurement service, with the brand name and logo of its products in this regard.
The dearth of digital viewership and advertising data is known. While individual publishers do generate enough and more data at their end, there is no common currency to compare different platforms on digital media. Advertisers, hence, face a problem in deciding what to spend here.
“While each (OTT or digital content streaming platform) individually has a lot of analytics at the back-end, it’s only their own. Here, we’ll have a common currency, which means a like to like comparison will be possible. Platforms will be able to drive value according to the growth they are seeing and planners will have a better way to buy TV and digital properties. While advertisers will know exactly what they are putting their money on. So, it’s win-win for everyone,” says Gaurav Gandhi, operations head at Viacom18 Digital Ventures, the part of Viacom18 that runs its OTT platform, VOOT.
The digital products will be launched under the brand name of EKAM, which is Sanskrit for ‘One’. There will be a suite of products —EKAM Pulse, EKAM Beam, EKAM Stream, EKAM Ad-Scan and EKAM Integra.
EKAM Pulse will measure video ad campaigns and will be the first digital offering from BARC.
EKAM Beam, the next product for release, will measure linear broadcast that is viewed on a digital device. EKAM Stream will measure both non-linear and pure-play digital video content. Linear broadcast is streaming of TV content on services like Jio TV; likewise where TV content is available on a device other than the TV set. Non-linear broadcasts are those offered on OTT platforms like Hotstar, Voot or Sony Liv, where there is a library of TV content which can be viewed by a consumer at any time, not only when it airs on TV. PurePlay digital includes content on platforms like Netflix, YouTube or Facebook; it is not content created for or telecast on TV.
BARC will also launch EKAM Ad-Scan, a global firstof-its-kind product, giving an overview of digital ads in India, a look at where the advertising money is being spent and which sectors are producing more of such ads.