Broadcast body to stop TV ratings

New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has directed the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India to stop generating the ratings of television channels that use landing slots to gain high viewership through high sampling and reach for their channels.

Sources stated that the I&B ministry, in a letter to BARC, has termed the use of landing channels as violation of the provisions of extant interconnection regulations of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). The landing slot is the channel which is displayed for viewers as home screen as soon as a television is switched on. It is understood that the directive has been issued in an effort to stop channels from any attempts at influencing television viewership data or TRPs by getting on the landing slots of various satellite TV broadcasting services and cable operators.      

The ministry has directed BARC to stop generating the ratings of channels that do not adhere to TRAI regulations, sources stated.

BARC India had previously maintained that it could not detect the violating channels because it uses watermarking technology to register viewership irrespective of the number of feeds being used by the broadcaster. 

BARC is a non-profit body of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation, Association of Advertising Agencies of India and Indian Society of Advertisers. It is estimated that BARC tries to analyse the viewership habits of over 150 million TV households in the country and is the world’s largest television audience measurement service. The rating system is compatible with direct-to-home (DTH) and cable television areas as well.

BARC India strictly follows government guidelines on the matter and has included rural households in the measurement syatem as well. With the entire nation now through digitisation of television broadcasting the measurement of television viewership is also more scientific, sources added.