MRUC, NRSC decide to merge IRS, NRS

MRUC and NRSC have decided to merge the IRS and NRS. IRS is the flagship readership research from MRUC, while NRS is the readership research from NRSC.

Sam Balsara (pictured), chairman of the governing council, NRSC and Ashish Bagga, member – governing council, NRSC have been mandated by the NRS Council and G Krishnan, chairman of the governing council, MRUC and Bharat Kapadia, member – board of governors, MRUC have been mandated by MRUC to discuss and finalise the modalities of the merger.

Commenting on the development, Krishnan said, "MRUC is a user body drawing its membership from all the constituents of the advertising/media/marketing fraternity. MRUC's support will mean that the joint survey has a wide acceptance. As a result, a more robust and relevant survey that will serve all the constituents can be made available."

Balsara added, "I am happy at this development which a lot of well-meaning people have been looking forward to for some time. We can now look forward to one industry-sponsored robust readership survey that will be accepted by one and all"

Speaking to Campaign India about the implications of this move, Shashi Sinha, CEO, Lodestar Universal said, “It is a very good step and will lead to a single robust currency. There will be no scope for confusion. Sample size will increase and thus it will be beneficial to all.

Nikhil Rangnekar, executive director, India – West, Starcom Worldwide said, “It is a good step. Now we will have a common currency. Even though monopoly is not good, but this could bring some good changes. It brings all the agencies, which were aligned to either NRS or IRS till now, on a common platform. I don’t see any direct advantages for the advertisers. But they will have best of both worlds and the common product can be better than two single products.”

 

LS Krishnan, CEO, Mudra Radar said, “The single study will be more robust. There will be economies of scale now that the two have been merged together. From the media owners’ point of view, it is a great step as it is very difficult to track two studies. A single study will be more focused. Many parameters can be added to it. So overall, all parties will be benefitted by this.”