TAM ready for DAS, to keep close watch on ground dynamics 

January 2013 will witness the digital universe for best of India release particularly in the metros. TAM will not report homes in the DAS area that are not digital, and the universe will thus shrink correspondingly

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | December 14, 2012

TAM India is all set to return to the market with its weekly television ratings data from December 19, 2012. For a smooth transition to digitisation in four metros, TAM India, ISA, AAAI and IBF had decided not to release its weekly data for a period of nine weeks starting the week beginning October 7, 2012 to the week ending December 8.

With 9.2 million homes been digitalised already and bandwidth being easily available, TAM predicts a gush of new channel launches particularly in the niche segment. The channels will also be seen engaging into cross-pollinating than having a standalone channel, with two to three segments gaining a stronghold – kids genre, sports genre and the staple GEC and movies genre.

LV Krishnan, CEO, TAM Media Research, addressing the media in Mumbai yesterday, said, “January 2013 will witness the digital universe for best of India release particularly in the metros which will show the market trends chiefly in the Phase 2 markets.”

DAS represents a big change for consumers and businesses. To ensure a smooth transition, there are a number of technically challenging activities that TAM will undertake: ensuring calculation of accurate universe estimates through a series of separate independent surveys; projecting homes' data to the population correctly, etc. All these activities have been designed to ensure that quality data continues to be reported to the industry, Krishnan said.

Krishnan informed that there will be a special DAS universe update effective from the data week beginning October 28, 2012 (week 44). “The new universes will be visible to the user community on December 19, 2012 when the data for weeks 41 – 50 are released.”

This update will be over and above the regular annual universe update for all markets across India on December 30, 2012 (Week 1, 2013). The four metro estimates will be updated again at that time.

Starting Q1 2013, the panels in Mumbai, Delhi will see an additional fresh recruitment of 400 homes in SEC AB segment. Other centres – Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai together – will add another 250 homes in SEC AB segment.

“At an overall TG level, we are definitely seeing a small impetus (in terms of time spent) to the smaller genre channels in post-DAS digital homes. Going by the advice of the CIC committee, TAM will not report homes in the DAS area that are not digital. The universe will also shrink correspondingly,” Krishnan informed.

Given the weak implementation of DAS in Chennai (26 per cent), the data from this market will be reported on as is basis.

Looking at data trends in pre- and post-DAS periods, TAM analysed 256 channels out of which 106 gained market share, 58 lost share and 50 channels maintained a fair balance. The smaller genre channels show an enormous growth with the big channels losing out a net total of 2.7 per cent of market share.

The first phase of digitalisation witnessed broadcasters switching over to digital from analogue in the four metros of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and partially in Chennai. Broadcasters aired ads heavily to create awareness of the digital era. At present, the penetration of digital transmission in Mumbai and Delhi is 93 per cent and 97 per cent, respectively. Kolkata witnessed a penetration of 76 per cent post Diwali. Mumbai and Delhi are well saturated but Chennai is not showing much signs of change.

Phase 2 of digitalisation would cover markets such as Punjab, Gujarat and Kerala. Metro markets such as Bangalore are showing an upward trend towards digital. TAM will continue to keep a close watch of the on-ground dynamics and will be flexible enough to keep adjusting its course, whenever needed, Krishnan said.

Info@BestMediaInfo.com

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