Any new ratings agency will create a bigger problem: IBDF to TRAI

Indian Broadcasting & Digital Foundation (IBDF) on Wednesday asserted before the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) that the existing audience measurement agency BARC is enough and there was no need to bring more agencies as it could cause bigger problems.

IBDF made the submission during TRAI’s open house discussion on the National Broadcast Policy. TRAI is likely to send its recommendations to the I&B ministry by the end of this month.

The discussion saw contrasting views and strong opinions being put forward by stakeholders who are divided over the existing audience measurement system of linear and OTT platforms with some asserting that BARC is enough to avoid confusion and conflict of interest and others seeking multiple agencies to ensure accuracy.

“There are two different metrics of measurement on TV and digital. Starting with linear, BARC was formed with the instruction of a parliamentary committee and the three stakeholders involved are– advertisers, agencies and broadcasters. There are two ways to get ratings – one is census-based method and the other is sample based method. Most countries use sample-based methods because a census-based method is expensive and difficult to obtain.

“On its own the BARC is making huge efforts to increase the number of boxes to increase the sample size and get more data on the linear side. I re-emphasize that any new company that comes in, will create a bigger problem. The problem is that the industry must have one common currency. If there are more rating agencies, the currency gets diluted and divided and then the industry is grappling with the issue as to which one is the actual currency,” said Siddharth Jain, Secretary General, IBDF.

Talking about the OTT side, Jain said that all platforms use algorithms as well as AI-generated data samplers and analysis to create user profiles and preferences to deliver programmatic ads which is not possible on linear placements.

“This data is extremely confidential. If we talk of a common agency, it gets complicated because you’re talking about getting data from platforms which have access to  people who subscribe to the platform and then share their data to the third party.

“We humbly request that we should not even open this discussion on TRAI having to look at a common consensus around measuring agencies in OTT or in linear,” Jain said.

Expressing a contrasting view, Raj Varier, Independent Counsel, ABP Networks Pvt Ltd, said that BARC was not good for news ratings and it was high time that the news genre got its due attention.

He said that TRAI has rightly raised the question on ratings and they have the jurisdiction to address this concern.

“There is a problem where news as a genre is concerned. The genre was discontinued from the purview of BARC ratings and then again restarted. BARC as a measurement agency may be good for any genre but for news it is not. The fact of the matter is it gets measured on two things – reach and time spent.

“Reach is dependent on the money spent on carriage which is another problem that needs to be addressed. As far as time spent is concerned, it is purely if I have something newsworthy, people will watch but otherwise, news will not get the kind of attention entertainment usually gets. It is not accurate where measuring news is concerned. It is high time that this genre gets due attention,” Varier said.

Echoing IBDF sentiments, Gururaja Rao, Principal Legal Counsel (Senior Vice President), Culver Max Entertainment Pvt Ltd (Sony Pictures), said that BARC is accurate and there was no need for any regulatory policy on rating systems.

“BARC is able to provide an accurate and unbiased audience measurement and rating system. The transparent data collection and analysis methodology is maintained due to the separation of the data collection as an independent function performed by BARC.

“We believe there is no need for any regulatory policy or changes in this regard. Considering the existing sample size of 55,000 households, it may fall short accurately representing the current vast landscape of 182 million TV households in the country, we can look into expansion of metered houses to adequately represent the diverse landscape of TV viewership,” Rao said.

He also said that the existence of multiple audience measurement agencies may lead to conflict in data.

“It may also create ambiguity and confusion with respect to the authenticity of different ratings,” he said.

Seeking multiple agencies, Ajay Singh, Director, Hathway Digital Ltd, told TRAI that it was time to push the envelope.

“It is time we push the envelope a bit as far as the audience measurement is concerned. Of course, 55000 is a very small sample size considering the size of tv homes we have. Having multiple agencies will be good. There has to be a competition,” he said.