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Business News/ Industry / Media/  Bombay HC allows HT Media to use IRS data
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Bombay HC allows HT Media to use IRS data

In Feb, the RSCI management panel and MRUC agreed to temporarily suspend the findings of IRS 2013 until 31 Mar

The readership data is critical for advertisers to pick newspapers and magazines in which they want to advertise. Photo: Abhijit Bhatlekar/MintPremium
The readership data is critical for advertisers to pick newspapers and magazines in which they want to advertise. Photo: Abhijit Bhatlekar/Mint

New Delhi: The Bombay high court has allowed HT Media Ltd, publisher of the Hindustan Times and Mint newspapers, to use Indian Readership Survey (IRS) data released in January in negotiations with media buyers to sell advertising space.

The readership data, which determines the number of readers individual print titles have, is critical for advertisers to pick newspapers and magazines in which they want to advertise.

HT Media approached the courts after the managing committee of the Readership Studies Council of India (RSCI) and the board of the Media Research Users Council (MRUC), the two bodies that oversee the survey, put the results of the survey in abeyance in February owing to protests by some media groups that questioned the findings of the survey and demanded its withdrawal.

“...holding of IRS 2013 in abeyance or restraint on further publication thereof by the respondents does not in any way restrict the petitioners’ rights to make use of the IRS 2013 already published by the respondents," the high court ruled on Monday.

Shaswati Saradar, director general of MRUC, the respondent in the case, declined to comment on the matter.

The order allows the newspaper company to “publicize such results that were published, as also to ask media buyers and agencies to use such data for the purpose of deciding advertising, as well as advertising rates", said Shantanu Bhanja, vice-president of marketing at HT Media.

In February, the RSCI management committee and MRUC agreed to temporarily suspend the findings of IRS 2013 until 31 March. The move came after a group of 18 news publishers, including Bennett, Coleman and Co. Ltd (BCCL) that publishes The Times of India, and Kasturi and Sons Ltd, publisher of The Hindu, questioned the findings. Mint and the Hindustan Times compete with the publications of BCCL and Kasturi and Sons in some markets.

A process for revalidation of the study was to be completed by 31 March.

The process of revalidating the findings of IRS 2013 will be complete in the next 2-3 weeks, said Shashi Sinha, head of an MRUC sub-committee formed to assess IRS data.

“We will make a presentation to the Readership Studies Council of India board in the coming few weeks," said Sinha, declining to share any details of the revalidated data.

In April, the sub-committee headed by Sinha, a member of the MRUC board of governors, and Akila Urankar, a member of the IRS technical committee and chief executive officer of Business Standard Ltd, maintained that the methodology and processes adopted by market researcher Nielsen, which conducted the survey for the first time, were robust.

Media buyers said the high court order wouldn’t have an impact on their planning as the publishing industry needs to reach a consensus on the new IRS numbers.

“As a media planner, I desire a common currency to do accurate and proper media buying. Most media planners are going by the IRS Q4 2012 numbers at present," said Mallikarjun Das, chief executive at media buying firm Starcom Media Vest.

Das said publishers’ revenues could be affected if a decision is not taken soon.

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Published: 12 May 2014, 11:43 PM IST
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