Ad agencies riled up as channels walk out on TAM

Advertising agencies today expressed unhappiness at the decision of some prominent TV channels to discontinue services of television rating agency TAM, saying such a mechanism was crucial for the industry to reach targeted audience.
The Mumbai-based Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) claimed the move by broadcasters was ill-advised and will lead to a collapse of TV as an advertising medium.
TV ratings provide the currency based on which thousands of crores worth of advertising time is bought by advertisers with confidence, it said in a statement.
Ratings also provide the basis on which media agencies to do sophisticated analysis and arrive at sharply targeted plans for a brand's target audience to minimise wasteful advertising and improve advertising effectiveness, it added.

The NDTV group, Sony Multi-Screen Media (MSM) which owns Sony and other channels and Times TV Network are learnt to have written to the rating agency TAM seeking to withdraw from it.
AAAI said that an established rating system enables advertisers to invest large sums of money in advertising with the confidence that they are reaching the right number of desirable audiences.

It has been seen from experience in India and other markets that an established Media Research study on an ongoing basis leads to rapid increase in advertising spends in that medium, AAAI said.
Those media which do not have such a system have not grown in India, the statement added.

"The move by broadcasters to discontinue with ratings is ill-advised and not in the interest of advertisers, advertising agencies or broadcasters. It will lead to overpaying and underpaying of advertising time, both of which will lead to a collapse of TV as an advertising medium," said Arvind Sharma, President AAAI and the CEO of Leo Burnett India.