BARC India's baseline study in abeyance puts TV advertising in limbo

New Delhi: BARC India's new Broadcast India (BI) study, also referred to as the baseline study, is reliably learnt to have gone into abeyance for an indefinite period, highly placed industry sources informed BestMediaInfo.com.

"BARC India tweaked the existing methodology of the study, which is bound to affect the outcome. This led to IBDF, the largest stakeholder in the joint venture, allegedly rejecting the deviation from the set norms. It is highly unlikely that the study will be released in its current form," said an industry source.

The study that provides insights into television viewership habits and TV ownership patterns across India was resolved to be a regular exercise conducted every alternate year. However, it was last released in 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even the latest BI survey raised several concerns as it was released using a projection method based on historical data due to challenges arising from the implementation of the New Tariff Order (NTO) in 2019.

As the NTO implementation led to significant changes in the television industry, including changes in channel distribution and pricing, BARC India then said that the disruption made it difficult to conduct a comprehensive survey.

This essentially means that marketers are bound to decide about their television advertising spends on the basis of a five-year-old study.

Calling out any further delay as unfair, a senior marketer told BestMediaInfo.com that the whole ecosystem has changed after the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Not only the advertisers but also television broadcasters are aware of the fact that a massive shift from TV to digital has taken place. They are scared to take this survey out," said the marketer.

When asked about the Indian Society of Advertisers' stand, the marketer highlighted that sensible people are gradually pulling away from television and relying more on digital medium.

"Advertisers with limited budgets spend about 70-80% of their advertising budget on digital media. TV and print are largely being used for hygiene for their mass reach," the marketer added.

A senior executive at a large automobile manufacturer claimed that unofficial numbers circulating in the industry put the number of TV households at 228 million. This means that TV penetration has grown from 67% to 76%.

"I tend to believe this number as it includes an estimated 60 million CTV homes and 45 million free-to-air homes. We need more details on the evolved viewership pattern," the senior executive added.

Playing down the advertisers' concern, a broadcast veteran pointed out that the baseline study continues to use the latest census data from 2011.

"The census itself is delayed for various reasons known to the industry. Even the new BI study will be based on the same census data. It is just the new extrapolation method deployed by BARC that is questioned," the broadcast veteran added.

When asked if this will hamper TV advertising, the veteran agreed that this could be true to some extent but asserted that TV will remain relevant due to the massive reach it offers.

On the other hand, advertisers view the current scenario as alarming, citing the fate of print advertising in the absence of the Indian Readership Survey.

"Print advertising is reduced to hygiene and impact creation. While the medium may be maintaining the volume, the incentives and discounts have led to a significant drop in revenues of the print players. This is already being replicated on television. Several genres have experienced this trend, and IPL is no exception," said a media agency head who did not want to be named.