NBF Urges MIB To Intervene In 'BARC's Failure To Address' Issues

News Broadcast Federation, in a letter written by its Founding President, Arnab Goswami to the Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Shri. Anurag Singh Thakur, has urged the ministry to look into the matter of addressing the problematic matter of Landing Pages being measured by the viewership rating agency as true viewership which has resulted in skewed final data being issued by the television measurement body, Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC).

The letter insists that despite multiple letters written by regional and national news channels on the issue of landing page being considered as true viewership number obscuring final data, BARC is yet to initiate any course correction. 

The letter re-iterates NBF's commitment to working with the Ministry and all stakeholders across the board to address the issue collectively and reach a solution. 

The letter lists 5 major reasons why the metric has "compromised the whole measurement system".

"The Government has repeatedly shown its commitment to building a merit-based level playing field. However, allowing Landing Pages to be a measure of viewership stops and prevents a fair competitive environment.", the letter mentions while addressing the inclusion of landing page metrics as a restrictive trade practice.

The letter suggests that the practice allows for artificially created monopolies and manipulation by certain deep-pocketed channels.

"The brazen use of Landing Pages, bought at a price, to artificiallv amplifv viewership data of certain channels gives channels with deep pockets an anti-competitive advantage.lt lays the foundation for all those corporates who also run news organisations to redirect their cash flow toward Landing Pages as a means to edge out other honest news players.", the letter urges.

"At a time when the Honourable Government of lndia has been working towards ending monopolies and creating a level-playing field amidst the surging digitisation, this practice by BARC counters all efforts to democratise news media, provide a level playing field to all players - big and small- and ensure transparency in data sharing.", NBF added through the letter.

NBF also believes that the democratic freedom of the press is being subverted through this monopilisitic practice. "The validation of monopolistic practices has the net effect of blocking and winding up other news channels that do not have the same monetary backing as the monopoly."  

The letter also goes on to single out BARC's incompetancy in addressing the issue despite having the capacity and capability to do so.

"In thc past, BARC had included unfiltered outliers data from Landing Page for its ratings data, but had later decided to exclude it from viewership. Therefore, it is clear that BARC has both the ability and the precedent of filtering out Landing Page data while calculating viewership, but is still not doing so. ln fact, in the past, BARC had itself termed the use of landing pages as a "false exaggeration" of viewership.", the letter concluded while urging the ministry to intervene in finding a resolution.