Life without TAM
BY NIKHIL RANGNEKAR With TAM – the industry-authorized television viewership measurement agency in India - facing an imminent shutdown due to the new Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) guidelines, dark clouds are looming over the Indian television industry. Media reports suggest that broadcasters are the happiest of the lot, while media planning and buying agencies are up in arms against the MIB decision. And the biggest stakeholders, the advertisers, seem to be non-committal at this point of time. What could the next few months have in store for the industry? Here’s a funny take on the way buying and selling of air time will be conducted in the absence of TV viewership data. SCENE I MEETING BETWEEN A SALES EXECUTIVE (SE) OF MONY TV AND A MEDIA PLANNER (MP) FROM GROUP X This is how the conversation goes: SE: Hi! I have come to pitch for business for our channel in your plan. You might not know, we are the Number 1 general entertainment channel in the country today. MP: What? How? When? In the old system, you were at Number 5… SE: That’s history, my friend. We have our own measurement system that I am referring to, and according to that, we are leading the pack. We conduct this research in and around our office among people of all age groups and SECs. We are clearly the Number 1 channel. Even the security guard in our office quoted Mony TV as his favourite channel. You will be amazed to know that we have 20 TV sets in our office and one can see only Mony TV playing on all of them the whole day. Just imagine how popular it is! MP: Research in your own office? Security guard? What are you talking, man? SE: Oh, this is nothing. We asked viewers to suggest new plots for one of our top-rated prime time serials and we got three-and-a-half calls last night. No other channel has got so many calls. MP: Half call? SE: Yeah, that was a missed call… MP: Look man, I have wasted enough time with you. I am not going to accept your idiotic research. I watch only Besahara TV and I will include that in my plan. If I watch a channel, even my audience must be watching the same channel. I know my client also watches Besahara TV. (End of Meeting) SCENE II MEETING OF PLAN PRESENTATION TO THE MARKETING MANAGER (MM) BY THE MEDIA DIRECTOR (MD) MD: MM, now that we are in agreement on the overall construct of the plan, I think we need to be present on a big property for ‘impact’. It will help us create a buzz and engage with our audience. MM: MD, you know we can’t afford any of the big properties on GECs or the next India cricket series. Do you have anything else in mind? MD: Oh yes! We can look at this West Indies v/s Zimbabwe series, which is being played in the West Indies and is telecast live on Twenty Sports. MM: But non-India cricket? And that too on a channel which does not have the same distribution as the larger sports channels? Do you think it makes sense? MD: Sir, I am telling you… I met the Marketing head of the channel yesterday and he has assured me that they have taken care of their distribution issues in the last two months. The channel availability now is at par with the leader. And cricket is a religion, Sir, our audience watches even non-India cricket. MM: But the matches will be shown late in the night… MD: But our audience watches TV late night only. Data proves it. The first ODI happened yesterday and two of my own friends posted late last night on Facebook on how exciting the match was. Trust me, Sir, it will have a big impact… We can even be the sponsors of the ‘Man of the Match’ prize which will be given when the match ends at 3.30 am India time. Imagine the impact it will have… MM: MD, let’s stick to a normal plan this time round. (End of Meeting) SCENE III MEETING BETWEEN THE SALES HEAD (SH) OF GTV MARATHI AND THE MEDIA MANAGER (MM) OF MULTILEVER LTD. MM: So how’s business, SH? All well in the regional space? SH: Oh yes! Our revenue has grown by 15% in this quarter. Most of the large advertisers are on our channel. But somehow, you don’t seem to consider our channel worthy enough of your advertising. MM: But that’s not new, SH. We have never advertised on your channel. When viewership data was available, your channel had a 0.001% share. What has changed so much in two months? SH: Oh, a lot has changed. You should see our new programming line-up. All new shows during prime time. The heroines in every serial wear double the amount of jewellery. We give them one new saree to wear every week. The heroes get new shoes every week and we are also moving out of the studio and shooting outdoor. The entire look and feel of the channel has changed and the viewership has zoomed. MM: Wow! That’s amazing… But how do you know that viewership has zoomed? SH: Only yesterday, we got advertising from supporters of the Anti-nationalist Party leader, Bhausaheb. They wanted to wish him “Happy Birthday”. They came to us because GTV is the most popular channel in the State. MM: But they would have gone to other channels as well. SH: But they wanted their spot on our channel at 8 pm. The spots on other channels were after 9 pm. Ours is the Number 1 channel today. In fact, yesterday, I was in a meeting with a new advertiser on our channel. They started including our channel in their plans last month and in one month, their sales have grown by 20%. The marketing manager said they have seen tremendous impact from the activity on GTV. MM: How many spots did they air? SH: 10 spots. MM: 10 spots on the channel gave them impact??? SH: Sir, it was on our most popular show, ‘Kaun banega Roadpati’… It’s the Number 1 show in the country today… (End of meeting) (The writer is the Joint CEO of Spatial Access Media Solutions)
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