TAM India Looking to Return as Currency Provider

With India's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) having suspended provision of ad ratings by BARC India, pending renewal of its licence, onetime provider TAM India has once again applied for a licence to measure the country's audiences.

Legislation in India in 2014 stated that no investor could hold more than a ten percent equity holding in both Indian ratings agencies and a broadcast or advertising company: this meant that TAM, the only firm providing ratings up until that point, was barred as it was a 50:50 Joint Venture between WPP's Kantar, and Nielsen. Since then, with BARC set up to serve as official ratings provider, TAM India has remained a player in the extended market, providing monitoring of hundreds of TV channels, publications and radio stations, and thousands of digital publishers, for ad and PR purposes.

Fast forward to 2025 and Kantar Media is no longer part of Kantar (it's also changed its name to Fifty5Blue). The firm's 50% stake in TAM India now belongs ultimately to new owner H.I.G. Capital and is no longer linked to WPP or any other advertising or media business, opening the door for a return.

A government official told the news site BestMediaInfo.com that TAM's new application - required by the TV Ratings Policy 2026 - was received at the beginning of this week, adding, 'TAM India's application pertains to audience measurement through RPD, which will expand to cross-screen measurement through multiple partnerships.' The agency has reportedly been talking to operators of distribution platforms about these data partnerships, and has indicated it could start publishing ratings within a quarter, as and when a licence is granted. One such partner is VTION, already working with TAM to provide measurement for CTV audiences, linking ratings with ad exposure via an opt-in panel of more than 100,000 smartphones.

Further discussion on www.bestmediainfo.com indicates the country might end up with a choice of two measurement providers, for the first time in a while: the site says 'the government's intent from the beginning was to fix [BARC India] instead of shutting it down'.

Web sites: www.barcindia.co.in and www.tamindia.com .


Pictured is TAM CEO Mr L V Krishnan

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.