MAM
BARC issues RFP for playout monitoring and DB system
MUMBAI: The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) appears to be reaching the final stretch of putting together its vendors for its TV ratings measurement system. Today, it issued another Request for Proposal (RFPs) – this time for Playout Monitoring and Database Systems.
BARC has stated that it could have its house in order by October 2014, and would start churning out its ratings by then.
BARC had earlier on 2 February issued the RFP for Design, Quality Control and Analytics. According to sources, about eight RFPs from national and international players have been received by BARC so far.
“In fact, we had started getting a few RFPs for Playout Monitoring and Database Systems even before we announced the RFPs,” the sources said but declined to give names of companies which have submitted their proposals so far.
The vendors for Design, Quality Control and Analytics will be responsible for designing the panel, ensuring highest standards of quality and applying correct weights and relevant statistical rigour at cell levels to generate final data for subscribers
French audience measurement company Médiamétrie, which has been named as BARC’s ratings partner, will also be BARC’s official technology partner. Médiamétrie will licence to BARC its TV metering system.
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Abhay Duggal joins JioStar as director of Hindi GEC ad sales
The streaming giant brings in a seasoned revenue hand as the battle for Hindi television advertising heats up
MUMBAI: Abhay Duggal has a new desk, and JioStar has a new weapon. The media and entertainment veteran has joined JioStar as director of entertainment ad sales for Hindi general entertainment channels, adding 17 years of hard-won revenue experience to one of India’s most powerful broadcasting operations.
Duggal is no stranger to big portfolios or bruising markets. Before joining JioStar, he spent a brief stint at Republic World as deputy general manager and north regional head for ad sales. Before that, he put in three years at Enterr10 Television, where he ran the north region for Dangal TV and Dangal 2, two of India’s leading free-to-air Hindi channels. The north alone accounted for more than 50 per cent of total channel revenue on his watch, a number that tends to get attention in any sales meeting.
His longest stint was at Zee Entertainment Enterprises, where he spent over six years rising to associate director of sales. There he commanded the Hindi movies cluster across seven channels, owned more than half of north India’s revenue across flagship properties including Zee TV and &TV, and closed marquee sponsorships across the Indian Premier League, Zee Rishtey Awards and Dance India Dance. He also handled monetisation for the English movies and entertainment cluster and the global news channel WION, a portfolio that would stretch most sales teams twice his size.
Earlier in his career Duggal closed what was then a Rs 3 crore single deal at Reliance Broadcast Network, one of the largest in Indian radio at the time, before that he helped launch and monetise JAINHITS, India’s first HITS-based cable and satellite platform.
His edge, by his own account, lies in marrying data and instinct: translating audience trends, inventory signals and client demands into long-term partnerships built on cost-per-rating-point discipline rather than short-term deal chasing. In a media landscape being reshaped by streaming, fragmented attention and AI-driven advertising, that kind of rigour is increasingly rare and increasingly valuable.
JioStar, which blends the scale of Reliance’s Jio platform with the content firepower of Star, is doubling down on its advertising business at precisely the moment the Hindi GEC market is getting more competitive. Bringing in someone who has spent nearly two decades doing exactly this, across some of India’s most watched channels, is a pointed statement of intent. Duggal has spent his career turning audiences into revenue. JioStar is clearly betting he can do it again, and bigger.
