BARC India’s latest decision comes as a shock to the whole of Media Industry. Many observed that BARC’s decision of suspending data of few News channels for a period of 4 weeks due to alleged involvement in tampering the meters as a strong indication to the wrong doers in tampering Household (HH) sample meters. Obviously it is much needed action against tampering, awaited by popular channels which are losing its revenue due to malpractices.
While many are praising this decision of BARC India, Few of Industry veterans has their own reservations on the parameter at which these three channels were identified the wrong the doers. Moreover, BARC did not explain what exactly was done for tampering; rather it only accused them of adopting malicious and malafide practices and they also question that….Will this suspension of rating of these three channels for a period of four weeks is good enough to bring in discipline in the industry…?
In the recent case of malpractice one National News Channel India News and two Telugu news channels TV9 and V6 News are suspended for four weeks from BARC ratings. Surprisingly both TV9 and V6 News are the top news channels in Market. TV9 is in the regional news business for past 13 years and maintained itself on the top during both TAM and BARC regime. While, TV9 Rules the AP Market, on the Otherhand V6 is a predominantly Leading Channel in the Telengana Market.
Here are some data tvnews4u.com managed pull in and surprisingly noticed some enormous fluctuations that various Telugu news channels displayed during the past one year of BARC regime.
- TV9 started with 134 GRPs in 28th week of 2015, and peaked to 173 points in 39th week of 2015. Then it has fallen to 69 GRPs in 43rd week of 2015, and then gradually rose to 245 GRPS in the 45th week of 2016 which is almost in the span of one year. There were some fluctuations in the period to be noticed.
- V6 News started from the 52 GRPs of 28th week of 2015 and continued to deliver between 45 to 60 GRPs for almost a year. Then it further fluctuated between 60 to 80 GRPs till the recent 45th week of 2016.
While the above Channels were accused of involving un malpractice, It is surprising to see the numbers of other News channels from the same market with considerable jumps up and down:
- TV5 which is considered to be the market leader today on BARC, Started with 27 GRPs during 41st week of 2015, and interestingly it has increased to 98 GRPs within matter of seven weeks. The channel’s rating went up further to 157GRP in another 15 weeks with some slight drops in midst. The trend continued to reach 254 GRPs in 41st week of 2016. The growth Story of TV5 with a year is really interesting.
- In the case of NTV. The channel started featuring in BARC data from the 2nd week of 2016 in which it opened with 66 GRPs. The Channel peaked to 170 GRPs within ten weeks. Then it was around 140 GRPs till 32nd week of this year. However, a sudden peaking to 184 GRPs was witnessed during 33rd week and then it continued to maintain around 170 GRPs till 45th week.
- ETV AP initially had a good start in BARC, however it gradually fell down below 20 GRPs. The channel maintained a rating of around 25 GRPs for a long period of time before it saw a sudden increase to 79 GRPs in 41st week of this year.
- The story of 10TV is even more interesting. The channel maintained an average of 10GRPs through out the year 2015. However, from the beginning of this year, the channel maintained 50 GRPs for 20 weeks and the Channel doubled its ratings to 104 GRPs in another 20 weeks time.
- ABN Channel started featuring in BARC in the 45th week of 2015 and it never crossed 20 GRPs till 32nd week of 2016. Then the channel gradually peaked to 97 GRPs as on 45th week, which is almost 500% growth in last 13 weeks.
As per the sources of the both suspended Media houses, they are on talks with BARC as well as preparing for a legal course of action.
While this is the scenario in AP&TS Market, BARC India is yet to identify the wrongdoers in Kerala market, where the rating agency and the Kerala TV Federation had jointly launched a police complaint against some unknown people who tried to tamper the HH sample. The case is being probed by DGP of Kerala.
tvnes4u.com could also notice some peculiar fluctuations among GECs in Kerala market where in a particular GEC has displayed extraordinary peaking trend in the past couple of months.
In a scenario where BARC data has become the single currency that determines the fortune of a broadcaster. There will be vehement efforts from the Channels to grab the eyeballs. While most of them are attempting it genuinely, there will be few trying to achieve it through shortcut means of tampering the meters. Hence, the growing number of tampering incidents and fluctuating trends prompts BARC India to insulate itself with much more care and caution to uphold and protect the fidelity of its data.
