aMap to increase TV meters

Is it possible for Sony Entertainment Television to know how many viewers of Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin also watch Star Plus? Or can Cadbury, for instance, plan to withdraw its ad from the afternoon slot on a channel as few kids watch it?

These questions and more can be addressed by the new television rating system -- aMap or Audience Measurement & Analytics in Mumbai that claims to offer TV viewership related information beyond the conventional data.

Set up in August 2004, aMap meters were installed in Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad.

The company's chief executive officer Tapan Pal says that the meters were tested in these markets and now aMap is ready to install them in the 10 lakh plus towns of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana as well as in Kolkata by the end of this month. The four southern states will be covered in July 2005.

Convincing media planners and broadcasters to switch from TAM Media Research may not be easy. But Pal is not worried. Zee is its latest client and others may follow, he feels.

"In the last 10 years, media market has increased four-fold. With media getting segmented, segregation of data on the basis of demographics is not enough and hence media planners and broadcasters are on the lookout for models that can deliver effective results."

Pal should know. He's spent more than 10 years working for advertising and media companies such as Discovery Channel, Mudra and Zenith Media.

aMap doesn't foresee a conflict with TAM as the market is large enough to sustain more than one player. Meanwhile, TAM is also coming up with an Elitemeter to track lifestyle and purchasing patterns of the SEC A audiences in cities.

Decision Craft Analytics, the US-headquartered company has the management contract for aMap in India. The company is into advanced data modelling and provides services to clients like General Motors, DSP Merill Lynch and United Nations Development Programme.

aMap uses meters designed by Telecontrol GFK. The meter is equipped with a GSM card, which is connected to a central server.

Abhay Sawant, business head at aMap says that every VRS (video programming signal) has a code assigned to it irrespective of the location and which is what the meter reads apart from the conventional teletext and frequency mapping methods.

The data is transferred electronically to the central server between 2 am and 4 am. This makes it possible for data users to access it immediately rather than wait for a week.

The servers can store up to a week's data. The meters cost anywhere between $2,500 to $ 10,000.