Reported By:
| Edited By: Nivedita Mookerji |Source: DNA |Updated: Mar 30, 2018, 02:44 AM IST
The ongoing television rating system came under attack once again in the meeting between broadcasters, regulator and the government on Tuesday.
After a day-long deliberation with the industry, information and broadcasting (I&B) minister Ambika Soni told the media that the present TRP (TV rating point) system has failed to represent India. According to Soni, 10,000-odd peoplemeter boxes cannot determine the choice of the ‘aam aadmi’ in the country.
“A minimal number of (peoplemeter) boxes should be placed across TV homes in the country for rating programmes,” the minister said, without specifying any number. Soni indicated that a decision has been taken to set up the Broadcast Audience Research Council (Barc), comprising industry representatives, as a viable alternative.
The main rating agency in India, Tam, covers 8,000 TV homes and 160 cities. The TRP ratings translate into advertising revenues for TV channels.
Industry representatives including Amit Khanna (Reliance), Uday Shankar (Star), Jawahar Goel (Dish TV), Punit Goenka (Zee) and Sameer Manchanda (IBN18), addressed the media on various issues discussed at the meeting.
A consensus arrived at the meeting was that TV ratings have an impact on content and the broadcasting industry as a whole, and therefore, the rating body should be more representative of the industry interest.
According to Goenka, there is a need for measurement system to change as broadcasting and content are evolving. Currently, TV ratings are done by two agencies — Tam and a-Map.
Apart from the issue of TRP, the meeting deliberated on the need for self-regulation by broadcasters, setting a sunset date for analogue TV and graduating to digitisation, level of foreign investment in the broadcasting segments and future broadcasting platforms.
On the formation of a broadcasting authority, the industry has decided to meet regularly for arriving at a consensus. Meanwhile, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) will form a standing committee to focus on some of the burning issues in the broadcasting sector.
