Indian TV ratings agency to offer video ad measurement service
Television measurement ratings agency Broadcast Audience Research Council India will extend its digital measurement service to map video advertisements and content across platforms. The digital offering will be named Ekam and will provide advertisers with independent third party measurements, audience verification and viewability measures. The rollout will take place over the next 18 to 24 months.
New Delhi: Television measurement ratings agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (Barc) India on Monday announced the phased roll-out of its digital measurement service which will map video advertisements and content across platforms.

The joint industry body also unveiled the logo of its digital offering which will go by the brand name EKAM (Sanskrit for ‘one’).

“The ecosystem needs measurement of both video ads and content, whatever the pipe and device maybe. As the brand name suggests, Barc India is working towards its goal of integrating TV and digital measurement. It will provide the industry with independent third party measurement, verification of audience and eventually viewability of video ads and content," said Partho Dasgupta, chief executive officer at Barc India, in a statement.

The offering will be rolled out over the next 18-24 months.

The service will include a range of digital products which will measure video advertisement campaigns, linear broadcast viewed on a digital device and non-linear and pure play digital video content under the brand names EKAM Pulse, EKAM Beam and EKAM Stream, respectively. Two other products are EKAM Ad-Scan, which will look at an overview of digital advertising across the country including where the advertising money is being spent, and EKAM Integra, which will provide common audience numbers (including television and digital video data).

“Advertisers in digital space face several issues today. These include dependency on publishers/platforms for data, lack of quantifiable differences in impressions, inability to see unique and de-duplicated reach & frequency across publishers/platforms and lack of knowledge on ROI (return on investment), among others," Barc said in a statement.

In June 2016, Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), the non-profit body for measuring and auditing newspaper and magazine circulation, also forayed into digital measurement, backed by market research firm Nielsen to provide end-to-end measurement across devices.

Recently, Barc appointed a six-member council to investigate and address complaints pertaining to viewership malpractices and tampering of Barc India’s measurement system. The council will be headed by Mukul Mudgal, former chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana high court.