Bharti Airtel which claims to be the Number 2 player in the DTH market on a like to like basis has started the implementation of Return Path Data (RPD). Bharti Airtel DTH Services has around 18 million subscribers all over the country but the above-mentioned RPD data are collected from a Airtel Xstream’ subscriber base of 8-10 lakhs. The data is available on the household level from the high income group which comprises NCCS A+ (New Consumer Classification System) and NCCS A subscribers of Airtel XStream services which delivers data on reach and total watch time which is similar to Broadcast Audience Research Council’s (BARC) total viewing minutes.
However, few industry experts seem not to agree with Airtel’s decision to release RPD data and onboarding clients. They allege that the channels can misuse the data according to their commercial requirements.
Speaking to Medianews4u, an industry expert on condition of anonymity said, “In my opinion, Airtel has released the data without doing any background study on the scope of use and misuse of the RPD data. In the current format, chances are high that the consumers of Airtel’s RPD data can exploit the same for their commercial purpose and claim top positions in the required markets they are expecting to grow or garner more revenue flow.”
Another industry veteran added, “The RPD data of Tata Play formerly Tata Sky is collected from around 10 million boxes. They have clearly instructed on the usage of data- data should be used for internal usage only and not for expressive marketing exploitation to claim leadership over competitors, which may result in a chaotic situation wherein every other channel might end up claiming as No. 1 in their own choices of categories.”
The Union Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has constituted a Joint working group under Prasar Bharati CEO, Shashi Shekhar Vempati in January 2022. The group is instructed to do a detailed study on different dimensions and aspects of data capturing which includes RPD as well. The working group is expecting to submit the report within four months.
