TAM Media continues to deliver poor ratings for ICL?

[ajuravi]

Ashish Khurana and Ankit Jain - Televisionpoint.com | Mumbai
The ongoing Indian Cricket League (ICL) continues to deliver poor ratings, according to the TAM Media Research data, even as the controversy involving the tournament's promoters Essel-Zee group and TAM over the ratings persists.

Latest ratings released by TAM, the industry standard television audience measurement agency based on which multi-crore advertising deals between broadcasters and advertisers are struck, once again shows that the average ICL ratings have not even managed to cross 1.

As per TAM Peoplemeter System, across all-India 15-years-plus males in cable & satellite households for the period between October 26 and November 1, the highest rating was just 0.79. The ratings are for Ten Sports, Zee Sports and Zee Smile, all three channels on which the matches are being aired.

Average ratings for the ICL tournament from October 10 to November 1 shows a dismally low average of 0.7 per cent. Essel group, which has roped in Idea Cellular, Provogue, Future Group, Airtel and Manikchand Oxyrich as ICL's tournament sponsors, has called the TAM numbers "inconsistent".

On a holistic analysis basis, Televisionpoint.com opines that ICL season 2 has performed very well compared to its initial innings. Sample this: for the first 18 days, Sony Max had attracted 31 million viewers for Indian Premier League (IPL), Neo Cricket attracted 27 million viewers for the ongoing India-Australia series; and Zee Sports & Ten Sports combine have managed to lure in 19.5 million viewers for the ICL season 2.

Speaking to Televisionpoint.com, Joy Chakraborty, chief revenue officer, Zee Entertainment Enterprises, said, "We are concerned about the ratings of ICL. We have asked TAM for a 'fresh clarification' and are awaiting their response by November 17. The ratings cannot be so low, especially after we have seen the on-ground response of in Chandigarh and today in Ahmedabad."

"The company has spent heavily on marketing, the distribution is in place and the matches are well enjoyed by the cricket buffs. Zee is surprised and the sponsors are shocked, as it is very hard to believe on the poor ratings data delivered by the TAM agency." continues Chakraborty.

TAM, on its part has earlier clarified, "The TAM system is a content neutral system. Zee Group has been using TAM ratings for its various research and business activities across their general entertainment, regional, news, special interest channels and sports for many years."

Siddhartha Mukherjee, vice-president, communications, TAM Media, explains to Televisionpoint.com, "For cricket at large to attract viewership, it needs to be judged by four wheels of wagon - content absorbing, emotional engagement on the content part; and inviting preposition and maintaining good PR on the marketing front. Aspects such as strong content, star power and good marketing; the proposition needs to be good enough to pull in loyal and fringe audiences."

Chakraborty has also alleged that data by aMap, which also measures TV audiences, has shown significant growth in overall number of viewers of ICL compared to the first season. But in the present case the correlation between the TAM data and aMap has a negative number.

Commenting on Essel group 's allegation that aMap ratings are at divergence with TAM numbers, Mukherjee said, "TAM Media Research will comment only on its own data, which has been the industry standard for the Indian television industry for the last decade."
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