Audience Measurement and Analytics launches Asia''s first online TV audience rating service

Mumbai: Audience Measurement and Analytics (P) Limited today launched Asia's first online TV audience rating service in India called aMap (Audience Map). This rating service collects TV viewership data every morning between 2:00am and 4:00am via its central servers making a cellular telephone call to the meters installed in sample homes. These reports are then immediately available online to the subscribers, through a VPN connection.

Currently 1,000 Peoplemeters have been installed in Mumbai (400), Delhi (400) and Ahmedabad (200), which may be increased to 20,000 over a period of 24 months. This will make India the country with the largest sample size for television ratings as compared to the USA, which has just 5,000 meters.

The technology for aMap has been sourced from Telecontrol AG (a part of GfK group), a Swiss electronic TV-audience measurement system that is widely used in eight countries across Europe, and the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation. aMap, by providing TV ratings overnight, will bring in great efficiency to the Rs 4,500 crore television advertising market in India.

Prof. Matthias Steinmann, inventor of the Peoplemeter and founder and CEO, Telecontrol AG, said, "What we are introducing is an advanced, even by developed countries' standards, TV audience measurement system that has evolved into its present form with decades of experience with broadcasters, media planners and buyers, and advertisers in a number of countries in Europe. With the launch of aMap services, India will become Asia's first overnight, online TV audience rating provider."

Raviratan Arora, MD, Audience Measurement & Analytics, said, "Availability of the TV viewership data on the next day will redefine the way in which media selling, planning and buying is handled. aMap is an enabling and empowering system for the decision-makers. Creatively used, aMap can help media buyers and planners get a 3600 view of their audience and target them precisely. aMap is a broadcasters' delight when it comes to developing their sales strategies and pitches sharply. aMap can be a vital tool in building a competitive advantage."

Tapan Pal, CEO, Audience Measurement & Analytics, said, "Our research in India showed that a significant number of opinion leaders in the user groups of audience measurement metrics felt the need for a state-of-art audience measurement system, which are rigorous and comprehensive enough to handle a complex multi-layered Indian audience. aMap allows a great deal of flexibility with a host of features, in addition to which we can also build client-specific exclusive modules."