In an exlcusive telephonic chat with tvnews4u.com, Shashi Sinha – The CEO of IPG India who also chairs the technical comitte of joint industry measurement body BARC India has lambasted those who point fingures on other news channels as he had categorically pointed that almost everyone has involved in such parctices at some or other and pointed the lacking unity among members of NBA due to the in-fighting among themselves on various issues.
Excerpts:
The war between NBA and BARC, your comments? Why is NBA singling out Republic ?
I don’t think it’s a fight not all NBA channels but some NBA channels have decided to pull out. Please ask them what is their agenda?
What issues they are complaining about when they have done it in the past themselves. Till yesterday Aajtak was doing it and its part of the India Today Group. I am quite foxed why they are doing this when they themselves have indulged in this practice in the past and even now.
Everybody has dual feeds, so it’s very churlish for them to point fingers at others.
Is NBA arm twisting BARC ?
Nobody can arm twist anybody, what is the reason for this no one knows as it is very foolish as people will ask if you could do it why not Republic. Republic is just 10 days old.
It’s a kneejerk reaction more of an emotional decision and really not thought thru.
I am trying to apply logic from the time I heard it and cant seem to find any. I am totally foxed.
India Today sends notice to Times Now, aren’t they all part of NBA ?
This fight what you see today has been going on for the past 2 months. They have been fighting among themselves, I am not mentioning any names but they been writing to each other.
When India Today started doing this somebody complained so its been going on. There is heavy infighting in NBA. There is no unity in the body.
All of these letters to and fro to each other and to BARC is documented and there is proof so can’t figure out as to what they would gain by this stupid action and withdrawing from BARC.
How will advertisers react ?
It depends from client to client some might still prefer buying from a channel based on perception. But some may not as there is no data available. There is data available till last week, next campaign which will break next week will be a problem. Some may go ahead but nowadays clients are heavily dependent on Data so the channels which have pulled out will suffer.
