Mumbai: The only registered television rating measurement agency in the country, Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India has said it will start reporting data for urban and rural population with less than 1 lakh from next month.
“BARC India is releasing data of urban markets with a population of 1 lakh and above. The same for less-than 1 lakh urban and rural markets is yet to be released, which we are expecting to report in September,” BARC India CEO Partho Dasgupta told PTI.
Currently, the agency releases data from 10,760 households (1L+ cable and satellite) and going forward, it will be reporting on 20,000 households.
BARC India has invested Rs 280 crore this year, which includes Rs 100 crore in the watermarking technology.
It also plans to report data on the digital platform, going forward.
“We are actively working on content consumption on digital platform. We will continue with our expansion plans in going digital and increasing meter count every year by 10,000. The road map includes possibilities of reporting TV viewing not just on TV but across other digital mediums and platforms to make the most of the watermarking technology, which is platform agnostic,” Dasgupta said.
Watermarking technology is a method of embedding data into digital multimedia content, which is used to verify the credibility of the content or recognise the identity of the digital content’s owner.
BARC India currently provides ratings on a weekly basis.
Asked if it would look at providing daily ratings, he said, “Theoretically and technologically, daily rating is possible. But poor infrastructure and power supply across our country make it a difficult proposition.”
BARC India is promoted by three apex joint industry bodies – Indian Broadcasting Foundation (60 per cent), Indian Society of Advertisers (20 per cent) and Advertising Agencies Association of India (20 per cent).
It was set up in 2012 with the specific purpose of designing, commissioning, supervising and owning India’s television audience measurement system, which reported the first weekly data in April this year.
