Bangalore: By just watching a show on television one can influence the broadcaster to take a decision which may even result in instantly changing the casts. Thanks to a new software called dashboard introduced by Mumbai-based overnight ratings agency Audience Measurement and Analytics (aMap), reports Business Standard.

A lot of TV channels are vying to get a pie of the estimated Rs 2,500-3,000 crore worth of advertising revenue, currently at stake. Since the companies buy advertisement slots on these channels only based on the popularity of their shows, the channels constantly need to monitor viewer response. This software helps them to do that.

The production houses like Endemol and Balaji have used the software to tweak the story plot of their shows to get viewers stay hooked to their shows.

aMap's dashboard service connects the client computers to aMap's central servers, and provides a large number of media or viewership metrics, some of them in real time. These dashboards use advanced data visualization techniques. To improve the performance of these dashboards, aMap uses data compression techniques. The company claims the software willl also provide additional details of the viewer like gender, socio-economic status, age group and the city he or she resides.

The clients can choose the reports to be displayed on their dashboard, from a large menu of charts. This can be done by logging in to secure servers through a VPN connection.

Not just the television production houses, advertisers too can see real-time viewership response to their television commercials through the software, claims aMap.

"Through dashboard, we can actually see how many viewers were watching a TV show each second and how many switched channels when a particular character or a participant was on-screen," says aMap Chief Executive Amit Varma. He calls the software an assistance tool for everyone including advertising agencies, companies, broadcasters as well as the production houses.