At the recently held e4m media debate around ‘India needs multiple TV ratings providers, because competition drives excellence’, Mona Jain, Chief Revenue Officer, Zee Media Corporation Limited took the stage FOR the motion and addressed why India needs multiple rating systems.

She started by clarifying that this isn’t ‘BARC bashing’, but is purely from the perspective of measurement systems.

“If you look at the process that gets a particular channel to get into the media plan, it begins with agencies putting together a communication strategy where they believe that a particular genre is entitled to be a part of the media plan for making the campaigns reach the consumer,” Jain said. After having explained the process further about how the implementation etc. is done, she mentioned that the broadcaster in the media plan is completely at the mercy of the measurement system to decide where it is ranked.

“The issue really is that the entire process has become very quantitative, nobody wants to look at what the reality on the ground is. A particular channel or network is not coming in a genre because BARC says that. But does anybody go beyond looking at the BARC data,” Jain asked.

She mentioned how there are lots of other data points that can be referred to. Sharing her personal stance, Jain said when she pitches to advertisers, she also asks them to look at the online, digital data, going beyond seeing where the channel is ranked. “We also do a softer research on the ground, talk to their stakeholders and figure out what they are saying about our network and then tell them to consider that,” Jain added.

The response from the advertisers and agencies, however, Jain further shared, is that “It all looks good, we get it. But can you get your rating a little higher in BARC? If you do that then possibly, we can give you what you’re entitled for.”

To Jain, this is the reason why she would prefer an authenticated, validated and acknowledged currency, which looks at the system from an alternate perspective also.

She also pointed out that when Chandrayan happened, despite a majority of people in India and globally watching it, data shows that in that particular week the news genre went down. “Is it even a possibility? Is it real?” Jain asked.

Sharing another instance, she said that the automobile sector which was a heavy advertiser on the channel was not really buying into it due to BARC ratings. “We went to 25 cities across the country, cities like Ranchi, Jaipur, Indore etc. and spoke to distributors and also the people who were walking into showrooms to buy the car. Top 3 channels that were being recalled were Aaj Tak, Zee News and ABP. There was no mention of TV9, IndiaTV and Network18 were there in one or two places. Because we had gone to smaller markets, there was a recall of regional channels,” she shared.

This research/video was then shown to 3 automobile stakeholders, saying this is what their partners and consumers were saying. After this, the channel could become a part of the media plan. “For 1 year I wasn’t a part of the media plan at all, for two advertisers,” Jain said.

The conversation further went to the agency saying that this particular network is resonating with consumers, so it should be considered in the media plan. “Then I get a plan from the agency saying ‘so and so is your ranking, GRP, this will be your share and rate’. Eventually, the entire conversation went down to that particular number which was reflected by BARC, which I believe does not really resonate with what the market is saying about the genre,” Jain added.

She concluded saying that monopoly is not the way, it makes people complacent.