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Centre asks BARC to resume TV ratings for news channels
The resumption comes after over a year of TRPs being suspended following allegations of manipulation of ratings that emerged in October 2020
NEW DELHI: The ministry of information and broadcasting on Wednesday asked the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) to resume the release of television rating points (TRPs) for TV news channels and sought the release of data of the last three months for a “fair and equitable representation of true trends”.
“The ministry of information and broadcasting has asked the BARC to release the news ratings with immediate effect and also to release the last three months' data, for the genre in a monthly format, for fair and equitable representation of true trends,” the ministry said.
The resumption comes after over a year of TRPs being suspended following allegations of manipulation of ratings that emerged in October 2020.
The Mumbai Police arrested at least five people over an alleged TRP scam. The police also questioned executives of Arnab Goswami-led Republic Media Group with regard to the case.
Republic Media Group has denied any wrongdoing.
As the controversy grew at the time, the BARC, which provides TRP data, announced a three-month-long suspension of weekly ratings of news channels across languages.
The council said it would review and augment the current standards of measurement to improve on “statistical robustness”, as the government set up a four-member panel to look into the allegations and submit its report within two months.
The joint industry body, which includes broadcasters, advertisers, and advertising and media agencies, said that it has initiated changes in the governance structure in keeping with the “spirit of the TRP Committee Report and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI’s) recommendation dated 28.04.2020”.
“The BARC has undertaken revision in its processes, protocols, oversight mechanism and initiated changes in governance structure etc,” the statement added. It has also initiated a reconstitution of the board and technical committee to allow for the induction of independent member and will be an oversight committee. It has also tightened and revamped the access protocols for data.
As per the revised system, the reporting of news and niche genres shall be on a ‘four-week rolling average concept’.
“The BARC has indicated that in view of the changes undertaken by it, they are reaching out to related constituencies to explain the new proposals and are in readiness to actually commence the release as per the new protocols,” the statement said.
The ministry, meanwhile, has also set up a working group under the chairmanship of the CEO, Prasar Bharati, Shashi Shekhar Vempati for the consideration of leveraging the Return Path Data (RPD) capabilities for the use of TRP services, as also recommended by TRAI and the TRP Committee Report. The Committee has been asked to submit its report in four months’ time. RPD capabilities imply that the set top box which is receiving the signal will be able to convey data on how the subscriber is using the box. The idea is to for the set top box to automatically capture the subscriber behaviour to provide an accurate estimate of viewership.
The National Broadcasters Association is slated to hold a meeting to discuss the decision on Thursday, following which the organisation will issue a statement.
