BARC India & TAM India Team for Ratings Data

MUMBAI: BARC India has joined forces with TAM India, which is a joint venture between Nielsen and Kantar, to form a new meter management company.

The newly formed venture will run the meter operations and will supply raw data to BARC India. This ratings data will be the sole trading currency for the country.

The meter company will have the meter assets and panel management operations of the present BARC India and TAM India panels, which will be jointly owned by BARC India, Nielsen and Kantar with management control resting with BARC India. The company will initially have 34,000 meters covering all of India, and will supply raw data to BARC, which will use its own statistical processes and sampling design.

Punit Goenka, the chairman of BARC India, said, "This partnership is a big step forward and in this era of cooperation, we welcome this move forward as a joint industry body. The technology and methodological prowess of BARC, combined with the extra meters and the field force will definitely help the industry progress."

"This new venture represents our organization's commitment to providing precise and stable data around the world, and draws strengths from both BARC India and TAM India," commented Steve Hasker, the global president of Nielsen. "We look forward to the great coverage and representation this new partnership will deliver."  

Eric Salama, the CEO of Kantar, said: "We are happy to cooperate with BARC India to be able to provide clarity and a large single sample for the industry and to keep India as a key market for us."