New Delhi: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) on Wednesday asked Indian broadcasters’ body BARC to issue news ratings with immediate effect, as the council said it has taken the initiative to revise its protocols and mechanisms.
This comes a year after the suspension of television news ratings following the controversy over the alleged TRP (Television Rating Points) scam that surfaced in October 2020.
The ministry asked the Broadcasters Audience and Research Council (BARC) to release the news ratings and data for the last three months for the genre in a monthly format for a fair and equitable representation of the real trends with immediate effect.
The ministry said in a statement that as per the revised methodology, reporting of news and niche genres will take place on a ‘four-week rolling average concept’.
The Ministry has also set up a ‘Working Group’ under the chairmanship of Prasar Bharati CEO to consider leveraging Return Path Data (RPD) capabilities for utilization of TRP services, as also recommended by TRAI and TRP Committee report. Is.
The ministry said the committee would submit its report in four months.
“In the spirit of the TRP Committee report and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recommendation dated 24th April, 2020, Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has amended its procedures, protocols, monitoring mechanism and introduced changes in governance structure etc. done.
The ministry said, “The restructuring of the Board and Technical Committee to allow induction of independent members has also been initiated by BARC. A Standing Monitoring Committee has also been formed. Access protocols for data have been revamped and has been tightened.”
BARC has indicated that given the changes it has made, they are reaching out to the respective constituencies to explain the new proposals and are ready to actually start the release as per the new protocol.
In an official order, the ministry said that the joint working group will study various aspects of data capturing including RPD with reference to audience measurement, international practices, protection of audience data, etc.
“The group can study successful global best practices in RPD like in Canada, model/pilot carried out in India by BARC and other independent experiments by DTH operators and other relevant stakeholders and prepare a mandate for combining data sources including RPDs. may, if so decided with the existing sampling method(s),” it said.
The Joint Working Group will have Prasar Bharati CEO SS Vempati as chairman and five members – one each from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Bureau of Indian Standards, BARC, All India Digital Cable Federation and DTH Association president Harit Nagpal. ,
The group will specify minimum standards for certification and audit of RPD enabled STBS, SOPs. It will specify common protocols, data standards and amendments to the existing rating methodology so that data from RPD enabled STBS can be integrated into the current TV rating system.
“Additionally, specify the minimum standards for any smart phone-based app for augmenting the above proposed RPD system for integration into existing TV ratings. Also specify for SOPs for authentication and audit,” the ministry said. “
The group will develop a consensus on how the price/cost of various such data sets, including RPD/smart phone-based data collection, will be shared within the framework of the TV rating system.
It will specify a consent-based privacy framework to govern all such data collection and use within TV Ratings, and the rollout of the above along with a clear roadmap to guide all stakeholders when determining the points of responsibility for will set the timeline for
“The secretariat for the joint working group will be provided by Prasar Bharati. If necessary, the group may invite any domain expert, and also representatives of stakeholders, for its deliberations. The group will submit its report to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. within four months from the date of issue of this order,” the ministry said.
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