India TV and Bloomberg TV India terminate TAM services

Bloomberg TV India has also asked TAM to stop reporting viewership numbers

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | June 17, 2013

Joining the bandwagon, Bloomberg TV India and India TV have also pulled out of TAM data. Bloomberg TV India today announced that they have terminated the services of TAM with immediate effect. The channel has also asked TAM to stop reporting its viewership numbers. As for India TV, informed sources say that the Hindi news channel has also written to TAM withdrawing its subscription.

Sriram Kilambi

Sriram Kilambi, President, Bloomberg TV India, said, “There are quite a few reasons that have led to this decision. One of the key issues is that all people meters that map the viewership trends are placed in the residences of viewers whereas the primary viewership of a business news channel like Bloomberg TV India is during working hours, i.e., from the office. Furthermore, our analysis of TAM numbers indicate that sample size of people viewing business news is too small to be insightful. Therefore, the data that is generated by TAM does not represent the reality. It is better that they do not report data at all rather than report data that is insufficient and incomplete.”

Last year, Bloomberg TV India had carried out a weekly analysis via viewer graphics (TAM's software) to understand the core audience sample size for Business News Channels. The analysis brought to light the following which has not seen any significant change till date:

• Having no measurement of behaviour in offices, a key constituency of business news channels, makes the research far from ideal for the genre
• The fate of the entire genre as well as that of individual channels therein is being measured using insufficient sample respondents
• The situation gets worse when one tries to understand the viewing behaviour for select Metros; for instance, in Mumbai and Delhi, the relevant population was being measured through an average sample of 12 and 14 people, respectively.

Over the last one year Bloomberg TV India has raised concern over the methodology adopted by TAM with respect to publishing the data pertaining to the viewership of the channel. Despite repeated email and personal meetings with the TAM management, neither has TAM reverted with anything concrete nor has any resolution been proposed. Thus the channel has written to TAM to terminate its services with immediate effect.

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