Advertisers left with no option but to cancel activity on 8 broadcast networks, says AAAI

AAAI has strongly held that any change in the TV measurement system needs to have support from all the three industry constituents – broadcasters, advertisers and advertising agencies

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Mumbai | July 15, 2013

Battlelines are hardening in the standoff between certain leading broadcasters and avertsiers and media agencies which have made common cause. No advertising without proper ratings, read weekly ratings. Even as some big-ticket advertisers have begun pulling out their advertisements starting over the weekend, the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) has just come out with a strongly worded statement and also counselling good sense to prevail. The AAAI has also said that more cancellations are in the offing.

Commenting on the current impasse on Television Audience Measurement, Arvind Sharma, President of the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI), said, "For fourteen years, TAM has been the TV Audience measurement system in the country. It has been the currency on the basis of which advertising planning, buying and selling have been conducted. We all agree that this measurement system needs to evolve. That is the common goal towards which broadcasters, advertisers and advertising agencies came together to create Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC). BARC will take ten months or so to start generating its audience measurement data.”

Decrying what has been happening, Sharma said, “In the meantime, however, if individual broadcasters try to force unilateral changes in the current system, as some have tried, it will result in a disorderly and hybrid measurement system. It will become impossible for advertising agencies and advertisers to plan and, therefore, buy TV spots. In this scenario, it is natural for advertisers to begin to question the value of advertising in this medium at all. Cancellation of TV releases by many advertisers on eight network groups that have insisted on unilateral changes is a natural outcome of that. More clients are following."

AAAI believes that any change in the TV measurement system needs to be thought through and to have support from all the three industry constituents – broadcasters, advertisers and advertising agencies. "We continue to be firmly of the belief that dialogue among all constituents is essential for evolving the system. We remain open to discussions, as always. However, this does require similar openness across all constituents. We will continue to work towards a dialogue," Sharma added.

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