BARC selects PFT for play-out monitoring service

PFT will scanover 400 channels on a daily basis, a whopping 35 mn hours of content annually

The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has roped in Prime Focus Technologies (PFT), the technology subsidiary of Prime Focus Limited to provide Play-out Monitoring Service to power its audience measurement programs.

PFT will scanover 400 channels on a daily basis - a whopping 35 million hours ofcontent annually which will allow the ratings agency to track whatcontent is being viewed on what channel at what time.

PFT's globally proven CLEARTM Media ERP platform bolstered with next generation content identificationtechnology and Digital Services will help automatically generateplay-out monitoring reports on a daily basis.

PFT will offer a robust play-outmonitoring service which will check the actual telecast of eachchannel, capture the content at every point in time, and help link itback to the rating piece of the audience measurement system.

In January this year, BARC announcedthe partnership with France's Mediametri which will provide thewatermark technology to track what channel is being viewed at whattime on a television with a peoplemeter. With PFT's technology, itwill now be possible to know what content was viewed on a channel(programm and advertisements) at a particular time.

"It is a great honor to be selectedby BARC, and we consider it equally a great responsibility towardsthe industry," said Ramki Sankaranarayanan, Founder & CEO,Prime Focus Technologies. "India has one of the largest TVecosystems in the world and the audience measurement system ought tobe highly credible. We look forward to working with BARC to helpbuild India's very own, trusted rating service."

"With PFT on board we are one stepcloser to our mission of indigenously building a television audiencemeasurement system that is better than the best in the world," saidPartho Dasgupta, CEO, BARC. "PFT's world class technology, deepunderstanding of Indian broadcast and advertising industry, andacross the board relationships with broadcasters and advertisers as aneutral partner made them the perfect choice for this critical role."

India has 154 million TV householdsmaking it the third largest TV market in the world, next only toChina and the US. This will be the first fully digital play-outmonitoring service employed directly by the Indian broadcast industryand is scheduled to commence operations by the end of the year.