The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting constituted a four-member committee on November 4, 2020, to review the guidelines on television rating agencies in India. The committee is headed by Prasar Bharati CEO, Shashi S Vempati, and its other members include Dr. Shalabh, professor of Statistics, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, IIT Kanpur; Dr. Rajkumar Upadhyay, executive director, C-DOT (Centre for Development of Telematics); and Professor Pulak Ghosh, Decision Sciences Centre for Public Policy (CPP) as members. The committee submitted its recommendations to the information and broadcasting ministry on January 12, 2021.
As per the union information and broadcasting minister, the recommendations of the committee include increasing the number of meters installed in household in order to have a better understanding of viewership. The recommendations of the committee will be evaluated in detail by the information and broadcasting ministry, then it would be given to Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC).
The committee was formed after the BARC suspended publishing its weekly individual ratings for channels in the news genre following the allegation by the Mumbai police that Republic TV and two other channels were manipulating television rating points (TRP). The News Broadcasters Federation (NBF), founded and headed by Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami, also wrote to the prime minister, seeking a ‘national-level independent body’ to “deal with misconduct by professional journalists”.
News Broadcasters Federation (NBF) was founded in July 2020, bringing together 50 news channels representing broadcasters from all languages and all regions of India. The aim of the body is to bring in transparent self-regulation on content. News Broadcasters Federation (NBF) is set to create an independent organisation called News Broadcasters Federation Authority (NBFA). NBFA would create new standards for news broadcasting and address any violation through a committee of editors from within the federation.
The committee was tasked with the following responsibilities:
- To study the past recommendations made by various forums on TRPs, and also study recent recommendations of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on this issue.
- To study different aspects of television rating systems evolved over a period of time.
- To examine TRAI recommendations notified from time to time. In view of the recent recommendations of TRAI, there is a need to look afresh on the guidelines.
- To study the past recommendations made by various forums on the subject of television rating systems in India and also the recent recommendations of TRAI on TRP calculation and rating.
- To suggest steps for enhancing competition in the sector and review the current guidelines to ascertain if the intended purpose of issuing the guidelines has proved its value and has met the needs of various stakeholders involved.
- To make recommendations on the way forward for a robust, transparent, and accountable rating system in India and other related issues assigned by the information and broadcasting ministry from time to time.
- To capture data from across multiple viewing platforms like cable TV, Direct-to-Home (DTH), terrestrial TV, and also online platforms wherever feasible.
- To address any shortcomings, which need to be corrected, in its report and to take into account any other issues pertaining to the matter.
The present guidelines on television rating agencies in India were issued by the information and broadcasting ministry in January 2014, after detailed deliberations by the parliamentary committee, Committee on TRP constituted by the information and broadcasting ministry, and recommendations of the TRAI. But TRP system came under the scanner following the TRP tampering scam in October 2020.
BARC and TRP Calculation: The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) is a joint-industry body, founded in 2010, by stakeholder bodies that represent Broadcasters, Advertisers and Advertising & Media Agencies. It is also the world’s largest television measurement science industry-body. BARC utilises ‘BAR-O-Meters’ (or ‘people’s meters’) for tracking the TRPs. These meters have been installed in over 45,000 empanelled households. These households are further divided into 12 different categories, covering more than 80 crore people. The members of these households have been provided with separate viewer IDs. These IDs should be active while watching television. BARC monitors the channels being watched and the duration for which they are being watched, through this method.