The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India has issued a global request for information (RFI) as it readies itself to expand audience measurement to the digital space.
The move comes in the wake of television becoming a cross-platform medium, available through a variety of distribution systems, including broadcast, IP, mobile networks and a growing number of connected screens through which audio-visual content is consumed.
With the initial focus being on measuring TV viewing habits via BAR-O-Meters through watermarking technology, BARC India has built a path-breaking audience measurement system for the Indian television market.
The RFI stage is limited to understanding the capabilities of online video advertising and content measurement techniques with regard to panel and census measurement across video types, devices and platforms.
After gathering this information, BARC India will issue a subsequent request for proposal (RFP) that is realistic in its scope.
BARC India aims to measure all forms of online video advertising, including ad breaks in live streams, pre-roll and mid-roll videos, and targeted/addressable advertising linked to the content on broadcaster sites or social media or any other website/apps.
In the RFI, applicants need to outline how their offerings work; what types of video, devices and platforms the company is able to measure; at what level of detail; whether the approach requires third-party action (e.g. tagging, encoding or API).