The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has stated its concern on television industry’s sole reliance on Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) for ratings. It has released a consultation paper on National Broadcast Policy on 2nd April 2024, in which, it has expressed regarding the concern.
In addition, TRAI has recommended the introduction of multiple measurement agencies which could in turn promote healthy competition, in the consultation paper. It further, improves the quality of service and reduce costs potentially. TRAI also mentioned BARC as the sole provider of rating services in India, which concerns market behavior, service quality and cost inefficiencies.
The consultation paper issued by TRAI, read, “Introducing more agencies not only fosters competition but also has the potential to improve service quality and reduce costs, as dependency on a single agency often lacks the drive to innovate and adapt to industry demands. Competition acts as a catalyst for innovation, prompting BARC and other entities to adopt new technologies and methodologies, ensuring continuous evolution in line with media landscape changes.”
“With TV households expected to reach 202 million by 2026, the existing panel size is poised to become even more inadequate. Therefore, there’s a need to establish a roadmap for incrementally expanding the sample size to meet the evolving landscape of television viewership,” added TRAI.
Addressing about the modern technologies, TRAI stated, “Return Path Data (RDP) can also be used as a transformative tool, offering real-time insights into the viewer interacts with content, empowering broadcasters and advertisers to adjust strategies promptly. Big data AI-driven algorithms may analyse vast datasets in real-time, refining the accuracy of audience measurement and empowering stakeholders with actionable insights. Moreover, there are digital set top boxes which have hardware and software that makes them two-way, that is, they have a return path. The return path data may be used for audience measurements through such set top boxes.”
