Moots self-regulation for television rating points
NEW DELHI: Will the telecom regulator finally get to control content as well?
This could eventually happen if the final recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on television audience measurement and rating points are accepted. The regulator has sought powers to be able to regulate “content” besides “carriage” in the broadcasting sector.
In its recommendations on Tuesday, Trai said the government’s intervention in the form of an enactment was not desirable at this stage to control content.
The I&B ministry had earlier this year asked Trai to give its recommendations for formulating a policy for TV audience measurement and rating points.
“With increased convergence and the blurring of boundaries between carriage and content, the recent observations of the Supreme Court on the role of media and the significant influence exercised by content on the society, the authority strongly recommends that regulation of content should also be transferred to Trai,” it said.
The regulatory body, however, feels that in the present scenario, self-regulation would work best. “A framework laying specific guidelines, including certain reporting requirements, would effectively address the shortcomings,” Trai said.
At the start of this decade, the government had mandated Trai to regulate the carriage issues in the broadcasting sector in addition to its responsibilities in the telecom sphere.
This was at a time when conditional access system (CAS) was just being introduced in the country.
Up until now, television content has been largely a self-regulated area. However, the government issues warnings and closure notices to broadcasters in case there is a violation of its content code.
An official in the information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry, however, said the government, at the moment, was not considering giving Trai the powers to control television content.
At present, two private agencies — TAM Media Research and Audience Measurement and Analytics Ltd (aMap) — carry out TV ratings on a commercial basis.
However, the government feels their data do not represent the country’s pulse accurately since their sample size is limited to 7,000 and 6,000 metered homes, respectively.
The new rating system proposed by Trai would have a larger sample size and cover all platforms — cable, terrestrial and satellite.
According to Trai, while earlier TRPs were only for business interests, today they are also for public interest.
The regulator has also recommended that the industry-led initiative Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) be recognised as an institutional framework for TV rating, though it would not undertake audience measurement directly.
BARC would, instead, finalise and vet the bidding process for rating agencies.
“Once BARC starts functioning, the inadequacies of the present system will have to be effectively addressed in close and coordinated manner with the I&B ministry,” Trai said.
Trai wants BARC to become operational by January 2009, but industry sources said it would take much longer. BARC’s nominees would include I&B ministry officials and its technical committee would comprise of people from the National Council of Applied Economic Research and the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.
Trai also wants the addresses of metered homes to be kept confidential, something the media industry has been demanding for long. The regulator has also proposed FDI and cross-holding norms for the rating agencies.
m_nivedita@dnaindia.net
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