Chennai: It seems Broadcasters and Advertisers of Tamil Nadu/Puducherry market may have to wait for few more weeks to see the Television viewership ratings data from BARC India.
The historic flood situation in Chennai that lasted till the 1st week of December has taken its toll on BARC India also, as the agency will be skipping its data for the Tamil Nadu/Puducherry and Chennai market for next week (week 50) also.
TN market was already facing a rating blackout situation for the past two rating weeks (week 48 and week 49) and the absence of data in week 50 will be third consecutive week of blackout.
According to sources from BARC India, the issue is mainly due to disruption in collection of Raw data from the samples locations due to flooding and related disruptions in Chennai and few other areas. Moreover, BARC India is still not clear on exact time frame for restoration of services, which means the delay in circulation of data might go beyond next week also. However, the agency is putting its best of efforts to resort to normalcy as soon as possible.
Earlier, the communiqué from BARC India for week 48 stated that “Incessant rains has caused widespread power-cuts and severe disruptions in communication and TV broadcast networks. This has directly impacted the collection of TV viewership data from the state”.
“On account of these challenges and disruptions, BARC India is not currently in a position to report data from Tamil Nadu/Puducherry market for Week 48. Data for Week 48, therefore excludes TN/Puducherry, and this has to be factored into any comparisons BMW users make with past reports. Specifically, for undertaking any longitudinal comparison of Week 48 with past weeks, BARC India users/subscribers have been advised to a separate region of “All India excluding TN/Puducherry”.
“Longitudinal comparisons of any specific market other than TN/Puducherry will remain unaffected”.
It is understood that BARC India will release TN data for this blackout period once it is available. It may be noted that the floods in Chennai had also disrupted the telecast of some of the leading New and Entertainment Channels in TN market.
