One Agency For TV Ratings Sufficient: IDBF

The Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation (IBDF) believes that the current BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council) system is enough and is against the creation of any new TV audience measurement companies. During an open house meeting on the National Broadcast Policy hosted by TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India), IBDF expressed concerns and warned of possible problems with other companies.

Siddharth Jain, the Secretary General of the IBDF, claims that TRAI has overreached itself in regulating and measuring material.

“Measuring viewership for linear TV and OTT platforms requires completely different metrics,” he said.

“BARC was formed by the instruction of a parliamentary committee. And the three stakeholders involved, which are advertisers, advertising agencies and the broadcasters,” he added.

Jain explained how measurement works for BARC.

TV viewership measurement relies on two main methods, the first being sensor-based and the sample-based. Most countries use the sample-based method because sensor technology, while possible, is expensive and complex to implement. Some argue for collecting data directly from set-top boxes (STBs) using a return path. However, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) instructed BARC to conduct trials with DPOs (Distribution Platform Operators) for this method. This raised concerns about data manipulation. DPOs might skew data to favour specific metrics, potentially favouring certain cable or DTH providers or distorting language preferences.

“BARC is actively increasing the number of sample boxes to improve data accuracy on the linear TV side. Introducing multiple measurement agencies would create complications. There should be only one agency, not multiple agencies,” he added.

Even in their earlier submission, the body had written to TRAI advocating how for TV, the existing mechanism as recognised and registered under the MIB’s guidelines and led by the industry through the BARC has been reviewed and works well.

“There is no need for any policy or regulatory changes,” the submission had said.