Television rating measurement and news channels haven’t had the smoothest equation over the years. Like TAM (Television Audience Measurement) has often faced the heat in the past, Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has also had their fair share of challenges with news channels.
The current TRP issue that has been simmering and dominating news headlines in the past two weeks has resulted in a raging debate on the subject of TV measurement and its dynamics.
BARC has around 44,000 barometers installed across the country to record data based on which it measures TV ratings and advertisers bank on these rating points to zero in on not just a particular channel but also the genre and programmes they want to spend their monies on. Now out of these, 2,000 are located in Mumbai.
This has now become a point of importance, considering the TRP rigging case started off with Hansa Research, an agency hired by BARC to monitor viewership, complaining of possible anomalies in the system. The Mumbai police claimed to have found evidence of malpractice and summoned Republic’s officials and arrested the owners of Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema on BARC India’s complaints under sections 409 and 420 of IPC.
The matter became a little murky with Republic TV claiming that there was a mention of India Today in the FIR. In the wake of these developments, BARC announced last week that it will pause Audience Estimate (Ratings) for News Channels for 8-12 weeks; and that Genre Level Ratings, by State and Language will continue.
While the Rajat Sharma-led News Broadcasters Association (NBA) has welcomed the decision, the News Broadcasters Federation (NBF), headed by Republic’s Arnab Goswami has objected to the decision.
Over the past few weeks, brands like Bajaj, Parle Products, Dollar and Amul have already gone on record to withdraw their support to channels that promote ‘toxic content’. Some brands meanwhile have taken a wait-and-watch approach.
In the absence of ratings, allocation of ad spends on the news genre channels will be based on perception and previous ranking. Leading channels in the genre are likely to maintain their position and may not see much impact but the small channels may suffer for a while. BARC has assured all stakeholders that its Technical Committee will review and augment the current standards of measuring and reporting the data of niche genres.
But will it lead to a robust measurement system? Does the industry need a complete overhaul of measurement ratings? Is the sample size still too small that the households with People-O-meter are being manipulated? Can there be Set Top Boxes in a few million homes across India that may have return path for data which can reduce manipulation and data fudging? The next few days and weeks may bring in a few answers.
WHAT THEY SAID – REACTIONS FROM THE INDUSTRY
One of the arrested persons and some of the wanted accused persons were employees of Hansa Research Group Pvt Ltd and they have misused the confidential data which had been entrusted to them.
It has apparently been done for wrongful gains of various TV channels, which had resulted in wrongful loss to various advertisers and their agencies. Preliminary investigations also revealed that these accused persons have manipulated the sampling metering services by inducing the barometer users by paying them periodically to watch a particular TV channel / s.
Many of the people in whose homes these barometers have been installed have accepted that they have benefited monetarily for keeping their TV sets on even if they actually didn’t watch it.”
As in all our previous cases of suspected panel homes’ intrusions, BARC India continues to follow its established vigilance and disciplinary guidelines.
BARC remains steadfastly true to its purpose to accurately and faithfully report ‘What India Watches’. BARC India appreciates the efforts of the Mumbai police and will provide the support asked of it Our efforts on combating infiltration are focused on the individual(s) responsible for these activities
and we firmly believe that television channels are committed to maintaining a clean and transparent ecosystem.”
