Is Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) credible ?

Prameyanews English

Published By : Prameya News Bureau | December 13, 2019 IST

New Delhi, 13/12: The Television viewership rating usually guides the advertisers. In India, the audience measurement or the television rating point (TRP) is decided basing on the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) report. However, question has been raised as to whether the BARC report is credible or not because the sole rating agency of India has allegedly conflict of interest. BARC was set up in July 2010 to address the issue of transparency and improve credibility. It replaced TAM  Media Research (TAM) and Audience Measurement and Analytics Limited (aMap), which were earlier providing television rating services on commercial basis. BARC was registered on July 28, 2015 under self-regulated category and since then it is the sole television rating agency in India.  However, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had laid down a set of policy guidelines on January 10, 2014 for television rating agencies in India. The eligibility criteria for television rating agencies, as stipulated by the policy guidelines of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, says, "Any member of the Board of Directors of the television rating company shall not be in the business of broadcasting/ advertising /advertising agency". BARC share  holding is held by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) and the Advertising Association of India (AAAI) on the basis of 60: 20: 20 ratio, as claims the BARC's website. IBF is the country's apex body of major broadcasters having more than 250 TV channels as its members. Similarly, ISA, represents the interests of around 160 advertising, marketing and media organizations. AAAI represents a very large number of  advertising agencies, who account for almost 80 percent advertising business in India. However, it is revealed from the returns filed by BARC, the TV rating agency is fully owned by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), despite its claim that it is promoted by IBF, ISA and AAAI.  In fact, the BARC board is packed up with the broadcaster representatives. Even as BARC has enough finance to hire independent credible  agencies for outsourcing all the three critical functions- (i) selection of households where people-meter or BAR-o-Meters are installed on TV sets, (ii) processing of raw level data (RLD) for errors and inconsistencies and (iii) calculating rating based on processed RLD, it, however, carries out all the three critical functions on its own. Thus, the Indian system is in contrast to the process prevalent in US and UK markets. In US, TV rating is conducted by Nielson, a New York Stock Exchange listed company and all the three critical functions are carried out independently. In the UK, the TV rating is done by the Broadcast Research Council Board (BARB), whose majority stake is owned by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which is funded by people's donation. Here, all the three critical operations have been outsourced to independent companies. The BARC ratings, therefore, are not credible, argue a discerning section. As the existing pattern in India lacks trustworthiness, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had released a consultation paper on December 3 last year,  seeking feedback from the stake holders. The consultation paper wanted to know (i) whether BARC has been able to accomplish the very objective of  its establishment- i.e, transparency and credibility ?, (ii) whether the present shareholding-ownership pattern of BARC ensures adequate representation of all stake holders to maintain its neutrality and transparency in TV ratings ? and (iii)  is there a need to promote competition in television rating ? However, the TRAI recommendations based on the consultation, which has been over since long, have not yet been made public. The  immediate release of TRAI recommendations is urgently needed as the government advertising agencies also follow BARC ratings for determining the advertisement rates, it is opined.

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