Voluntary abeyance placed on IRS 2013 data lifted!

The Indian Readership Survey 2013 which was  released on  January  28,  2014 had been a point of concern for all parties involved since the  release attracted differing views  on  the accuracy of the data  and  therefore the  Readership Studies Council  of  India  voluntarily requested subscribers to  hold  the  study in  abeyance and decided  to undertake a revalidation exercise.

Subsequently a sub-committee for revalidation was established with two co-chairs representing publishers and advertising agencies.   The sub-committee unanimously concluded that the methodology used to conduct IRS 2013 was in order and decided to commission a Process Audit.

This committee, after viewing several proposals unanimously agreed to award this audit to Praveen Tripathi, (Magic 9  Media)  India's  foremost expert on  large-scale studies  of media consumption behaviour.

The findings of the revalidation sub-committee and the audit report, it was decided, would be discussed by the Heads of four industry bodies  i.e. Chairman-MRUC,  Chairman-RSCI, President-INS and Chairman-ABC, and a decision taken  by them.

The said  Heads of the four  bodies received and  deliberated upon  the  report submitted by Praveen  Tripathi and  discussed the  same with  the  Chairman of the  RSCI - Technical Committee as well as the two co-chairmen of the revalidation committee.

The Audit was conducted in two stages. Stage  one  involving direct  back  checking  of respondent homes  after  which  a  much  broader and  deeper  Forensic Statistical Analysis exercise  was carried out to identify and  isolate both  fieldwork compliance deficiencies and incidences  of  the   occurrence  of  Unusual    Publication  Incidence  (UPI)   in  respondent interview records. By sieving the aggregate data  set  for these issues, the  audit was able  to judge  unequivocally whether  the  statistical deviations systematically changed any  of the crucial readership outputs. The outcome was conclusive and  unequivocal. The study results had not been impacted.

After intense deliberations and  careful  examination of the  audit report, Chairman-MRUC, Chairman-RSCI President-INS and  Chairman-ABC,  have  arrived at  a unanimous and unambiguous decision  to  lift  the  voluntary abeyance placed   on  The  Indian   Readership Survey, 2013. The voluntary abeyance placed on The Indian  Readership Survey 2013  is lifted with  effect from 20th August, 2014.

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