Then it was TAM
rating. It was a research agency which
is owned by Nielsen and Kantar. I was told that there was a TAM meter given to
a lady in a household and told to watch the serials of her choice. What she
watched and for how long , was logged in the meter. The ratio was something
like one meter for one lakh population. Producers claimed that these people
with meters were from the Brahmin caste and stayed in the pockets of Chennai
that was dominated by the caste. Though TAM meters were to be on in even cities
outside Chennai, the general belief was that it was all in Chennai.
The selling of
advt slot for each serial allotted to the producer by the channel was roughly 5
mins for a 30 min slot. This time was sold by agencies usually run by
individuals. They went to Mumbai and presented TAM ratings to advt agencies
dealing with consumer goods. Some producers appointed their own marketing
agents to save on the commission paid to the middle men. However in most times,
these managers themselves floated agencies and sold space to their ex-boss.
There was a Murthy with a long vision. He took a monopoly of ad-time in some
channels and in regular production houses. It became almost a difficult task to
break the hold.
It was these
agents who spread the word that maamis controlled the TAM remote and so better please
them. Every episode writer had to bear this mind. Even if it was a horror
subject, there had to be a Brahmin in the subject. There used to be a talk that
the agencies had knowledge of who had these TAM meters and they were paying
them to keep the ratings of their clients soap high. I remember a politician
raising the issue in the Assembly saying that certain areas in the city in the
evening never had a power cut ( It was a jibe at Sun TV). At the same time, I
have seen producers getting panicky when there was a power failure in the city
or parts of it.
This scenario
more or less was like the present allegation where people were paid to just
tune to a channel and keep it on to get the rating. The TAM measurements had
some things like if a person watched for 10 minutes a serial it was 24 hrs a
week A guy who was after a channel for a evening slot
got fed up and asked for a noon slot. A
channel gave it and agencies laughed as it was siesta time. It turned out that
the afternoon nap time got shifted and rest is history.
BARC came in with the blessing of Arun Jaitley and formed by the broadcasters, advertisers and ad agencies, with TAM owners holding 49% but remain a silent partner. It put to an end to much maligned TAM. To all those in the TV news channels, it is known that advertisers have in majority of cases refused to re-issue release orders for advts. Salaries have been halved or paid in installments. Most of them are run by interns. In such a situation, TV industry watchers say that all Republic did was make entertainment news into a headline news and sell it effectively. They say that even accepting the rigging charge, Republic will still remain the market leader as the content packaging has gone down well with its viewers.
Though many channels knew about the rigging and they too had resorted to it and many have overtaken existing number one and nobody made a noise, however the Aaj Tak losing to Republic Bharat has triggered a storm. Advertisers feel that the secret known to all channel heads but not told in open has been thrown open by the political leaders who have been at the receiving end of the Republic attack.
No comments:
Post a Comment