The Birth of BARC: The Challenges of Establishing a New Television Audience Measurement System in India

Abstract

In 2015, three key stakeholders from the world of media industry, the advertising agencies and the marketers came together to build an innovative solution to the problems facing the television audience measurement (TAM) practices in India. Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) was a novel collaborative experiment between three key stakeholders. The case follows the events preceding the birth of BARC and challenges faced in the process of setting up the BARC and a robust television audience measurement (TAM) system. It narrates the journey and explores the question that how BARC’s evolution happened and how it plays a balancing act to meet the needs of various stakeholders and address the previous concerns.