Advertisment

RSCI seeks inputs to develop new IRS

Stakeholders have been requested to submit relevant information and proposals by December 22, 2011

author-image
BestMediaInfo Bureau
New Update
I Venkat is new MRUC Chairman

RSCI seeks inputs to develop new IRS

Stakeholders have been requested to submit relevant information and proposals by December 22, 2011

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | December 12, 2011

publive-imageThe newly set up Readership Studies Council of India (RSCI) has issued a global request for Information (RFI) to seek an understanding of a state-of-the art readership research in particular and audience measurement research in more general terms.

The Indian Readership Survey (IRS) has been owned and administered by Media Research Users' Council (MRUC), an Industry body set up in 1994. Run continuously since its inception, the IRS currently covers over 250,000 households every year.

The MRUC and ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation) earlier this year decided to merge their parallel readership studies by entering into an alliance to form the RSCI, which will take charge of administering the IRS. This will ensure that the sizable resources required – financial as well as intellectual – to mount such a study are not divided and stakeholders in India and around the world enjoy uninterrupted access to comprehensive, accurate, reliable and timely readership research.

The RSCI Managing Committee has declared its intention to deliver a 'gold standard' IRS. Given that IRS addresses a population of over 1 billion, it will settle for nothing less than being the best in class, in the world, says a notification put out last week. .

IRS has seen continuous evolution through its history, progressing from being purely print-focused to expanding its ambit to several new media over the last two decades. Today, IRS spans: Print (Dailies and Periodicals; Television; Radio; Internet; Mobile; and, Product/Category Linkage.

As the charter has grown, so has the length and duration of the questionnaire that is administered in as many as 10 languages by an over 200-strong field force across 542 districts.

The IRS must:

  • Enable fair and full value for Print and other media advertising inventories
  • Be an accurate gauge of reach and impact that a particular media mix will deliver to advertisers, including measures to capture reading occasions/locations
  • Provide a comprehensive suite of analyses and planning tools to craft brand and media plans addressing market definitions as narrow or wide as the user chooses
  • Become a continuously updating sourcebook of information and a veritable barometer of churn and change in the Indian media

It is clear that legacy architecture of the study that has evolved in stages, is now ready for seminal change. It is less clear, however, what the contours of the new IRS will be. Therefore, the RFI seeks ideas, templates and experiences that will help RSCI to prepare a blueprint for the new IRS. Respondents will be expected to provide their inputs in the form of a report not exceeding 20 A4 pages in single-spaced Verdana 10 point font size. Respondents will also be expected to be willing to do a presentation not exceeding one hour at RSCI's secretariat in Mumbai.

Respondents will receive the Request for Proposal (RFP) that will follow after the RSCI concludes its study of the inputs received. The notification makes it clear that non-response to the RFI will preclude further participation in the process that will lead up to the new IRS. Responses should reach RSCI latest by December 22, 2011.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

Advertisment