Partho Dasgupta steps down as CEO, BARC India; Sunil Lulla takes over world’s largest television audience measurement enterprise

Sunil Lulla, the industry veteran with over 35 years of media and marketing experience, has been appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of BARC, the industry-approved body for measuring TV viewership in India. Lulla, who has built and headed several media businesses, replaced Partho Dasgupta, the first CEO of BARC, who decided to move on. BARC India is a joint initiative of broadcasters, advertising agencies and advertisers. Billed as the world’s largest television audience measurement enterprise, BARC is an umbrella industry company between broadcasters, advertisers and agencies. [caption id=“attachment_7538361” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Sunil Lulla. Image courtesy: Twitter[/caption] Lulla said, he is “delighted to lead BARC as it grows its footprint, in coverage, scope and services in the fast growing and rapidly evolving TV and digital industry. Things are changing fast and audience measurement has to keep pace with all these. I thank Partho for bringing the company to where it is and wish him a great time ahead,” Lulla said about his new role. Welcoming Lulla aboard, Punit Goenka, the Chairman BARC India, said, “He has been a board member before and is familiar. Winner of several awards, BARC India is now considered a benchmark by the global measurement community. We wish him the best for his career ahead,” according to a report in News18.com. Speaking on the transition, Goenka added, “Partho and Sunil are working with the teams for a smooth transition in the weeks to come.” R Balki, film director said, “Sunil is a great choice. I cannot think of a better guy. He has always been innovative and thinks out of the box. He is great with people too.” Dasgupta said that it had been a tremendous journey to setup the world’s largest audience measurement company with “the least investment and in the quickest time”. “Having set it up, expanding the panel and introducing new insight products for News, Sports, Music and OOH genres, I thought it’s time to move on and do new things,” he said. Earlier, Lulla was the chief executive officer of Balaji Telefilms and vice-chairman and MD of Eros India.