Unified ad tracking needs wider buy-in to succeed

Designed to solve one of the advertising industry’s biggest measurement gaps by giving brands a single, granular view of campaign reach across television and digital, the success of the Broadcast Audience Research Council India (BARC)-Nielsen cross-media measurement system hinges on India’s biggest broadcasters and streaming platforms getting on board, media experts said.

Without wider participation from major TV networks and OTT platforms, its ability to emerge as a credible industry currency may remain constrained, forcing advertisers to continue stitching together fragmented data from multiple measurement tools.

So far, JioHotstar is the only platform to adopt the framework, as per an announcement by BARC and Nielsen. To be sure, it is among the biggest OTT and broadcasting platforms by both reach and bouquet of services.

BARC and Nielsen Monday announced the launch of BARC | Nielsen ONE Ads, a cross-media advertising measurement solution that aims to provide advertisers and agencies with a unified view of campaign performance across linear television and digital platforms.

According to industry reports, the collective ad spends on linear TV and CTV is expected to reach ₹40,000-50,000 crore in 2026.

Brand managers said cross-media ad measurement will be ineffective unless broadcasters and streaming platforms join the initiative, as advertisers invest across several platforms and need a unified view of exposure on both TV and digital. “It’s a step in the right direction, but the technology needs to accurately measure exposure and ensure proper deduplication. Right now nobody can give the actual reach in terms of who is watching the ads, how they are watching them and how often. Only one platform has signed up so far, so more players will need to join for the system to become effective. Publishers may eventually come on board once advertisers start pushing them,” said Parle Products CMO Mayank Shah.

The BARC and Nielsen collaboration comes at a time when media consumption in India is increasingly fragmented across television, mobile devices, connected TVs and computers, making it harder for advertisers to measure campaign reach accurately.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has also been pushing BARC to measure audience viewership across both TV and digital platforms.

The marketing head of another consumer goods company said the initiative may have come a little late as many brands have already begun shifting ad spending from linear television to digital platforms, including connected TV and mobile.

“Some publishers are in wait-and-watch mode as the success of this initiative could have significant implications for their business. Yields on linear TV are still higher than digital, and cross-media measurement could expose how much incremental value each platform actually delivers. However, this move could help brands plan their media mix more accurately by providing a clearer understanding of which medium is delivering what value,” the executive said on condition of anonymity.

Dabur India head of media Rajiv Dubey said BARC and Nielsen coming together on cross screen measurement is an important step for the industry and advertisers.

“For advertisers, the biggest benefit will be a deduplicated view of reach across TV, CTV and mobile,” he noted.