Vikram Sakhuja replaces Shashi Sinha as Chairman of BARC India's Technical Committee
Sakhuja's key priority as TechComm Chairman will be to protect the integrity of TV audience measurement data
Madison Media & OOH Group CEO Vikram Sakhuja has taken over as the Chairman of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India's Technical Committee. He has replaced IPG Mediabrands India CEO Shashi Sinha, who served as BARC TechComm Chairman for close to a decade since taking charge in 2012.
Sinha has joined the 10-member BARC India board which has representatives from the Indian Broadcasting & Digital Foundation (IBDF), Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI), and Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA).
Confirming the development to exchange4media, Sakhuja said, "Yes, I have formally taken over as BARC TechComm Chairman earlier this week. This has been in the offing for some time but the BARC Board gave its formal approval some time back, and I was informed about this decision a few days ago."
With close to three decades of experience, Sakhuja has been part of several industry bodies like Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), Readership Studies Council of India (RSCI), BARC, and FICCI.
Sakhuja said his key priority as TechComm Chairman will be to protect the integrity of TV audience measurement data. "My key priority will be to ensure that the stakeholders continue to have trust in the BARC data since it is the official currency for the TV broadcast sector," he stated.
Apart from Sakhuja, TechComm also comprises former Hindustan Unilever Head Media Services - South Asia Gauravjeet Singh and media veteran Rohit Gupta, who is currently serving as Advisor to the Sony Pictures Networks India Board.
exchange4media has learnt that Singh will be moving out of TechComm since he is joining Facebook as Director - Partnerships. The BARC TechComm has a representative each from IBDF, AAAI, and ISA. Singh represents the ISA while Sakhuja and Gupta represent the AAAI and IBDF respectively.
Set up in fiscal 2010 as a Section 25 company, BARC is an industry body that designs, commissions, supervises, and owns TV audience measurement systems in India, and provides related services. It is promoted by IBDF, ISA, and AAAI with a shareholding of 60:20:20, respectively.
The council uses audio watermarking technology and has deployed around 46,000 BAR-O-meters. It has plans to venture into viewership estimation for digital platforms and is increasing the number of BAR-O-meters deployed.
