IB Ministry Seeks To Amend Rules For TV Rating Agencies: All You Need To Know

The Union Information and Broadcast Ministry proposed changes to the Policy Guidelines for Television Rating Agencies, originally issued in 2014. The amendments have been proposed to allow more players into the television ratings business. “The new TRP policy draft aims to fix gaps in measuring streaming and mobile viewership, giving a tech refresh to the outdated ratings system,” said the ministry.

What does the Draft Propose?

According to the Ministry, high-entry barriers and cross-holding restrictions have prevented broadcasters or advertisers from investing in rating agencies. To fix these problems, the Ministry has drafted key amendments including Modification of Clause 1.4 by replacing the earlier requirement that a company’s Memorandum of Association (MoA) shall not include any activity like consultancy or advisory services. The new draft includes an easier-to-comply provision stating that, “the company shall not undertake any activity like consultancy or any such advisory role, which would lead to a potential conflict of interest with its main objective of rating.”

It also aims to remove restrictive clauses 1.5 and 1.7, which blocked potential entrants, have been proposed for removal.

What Does the Draft Mean?

The draft aims to remove some restrictive provisions for media houses to allow more players besides the current BARC “to democratise & modernise the television audience measurement ecosystem in India.”

The ministry observed that the current system which measures viewership based on Television Rating Points (TRP) does not fully capture the scope of evolving patterns. This gap is due to the content availability on various platforms including smart TVs, mobile applications, and other online streaming platforms which directly affects the accuracy of the ratings. Since it is outside the scope of the current measurement pattern, it has a negative impact on revenue planning for broadcasters and advertising strategies for brands.

“The proposed reforms aim to enable fair competition, generate more accurate and representative data, and ensure that the Television Rating Points (TRP) system reflects the diverse and evolving media consumption habits of viewers across the country,” it said. 

The statement added that “India currently has about 230 million television households. However, only about 58,000 people meters are presently used to capture viewership data, representing just 0.025 per cent of the total TV homes. This relatively limited sample size may not adequately represent the diverse viewing preferences across regions and demographics.”

In addition to bridging this gap, the draft attempts to end BARC’s monopoly in the television ratings industry. According to reports, once more players enter the market, norms pertaining to the integration of smart TVs and external streaming platforms will be revised. 

The Ministry has invited feedback from stakeholders and the general public within 30 days of the issuance of the draft.

The TRP Conundrum 

A rating scandal was unearthed by the police in 2020 after acting on a complaint made by the BARC. The police had identified three news channels who were manipulating viewership ratings by bribing panel homes where measurement meters had been placed. Following the event, BARC suspended the ratings for all news channels thereafter. 

The scandal was important as the television ratings are the basis on which advertising revenue is determined. The Indian TV advertising is worth over ₹32,000 crore.

Before BARC, the Television Audience Measurement was employed for the rating points. In 2002-03, a controversy arose where former director general of Doordarshan S.Y. Quraishi questioned how the national broadcaster with a news share of 92 per cent did not figure at the top of the TRP list. Quraishi claimed that households where metres were installed were being bribed. 

A few years later, NDTV sued TAM’s parent company in New York for publishing suspicious data. After the controversies, BARC was founded in 2010 by the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) to replace TAM. It increased the sample size from 9,600 households under TAM to 30,000 households for getting genuine results.