The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) is bringing back its out-of-home TV viewership ratings today on March 30, a day ahead of IPL 2023.
The ratings body reportedly sent out a message to all its subscribers, stating that all watermarked channels will be reported with both the TV and OOH viewership they garner, which would make it a comprehensive aggregation of audiences on the linear TV screen.
BARC first launched the service back in April 2018 and has planned to bring it back since footfalls in restaurants, where sporting events are screened for diners, have increased post-pandemic. Since IPL is the biggest annual tournament in the country, BARC said that it has become critical to address and account for OOH viewership to evaluate the true reach of TV.
BARC will leverage its Audio Watermarking technology and TV viewership measurement capabilities for its OOH TV ratings. It will report TV viewership happening in social hot spots like restaurants, pubs and bars in select cities.
BARC India’s OOH measurement, which captures the growing trend of TV viewing outside homes, is a pre-subscribed service. The service was touted as a game changer for the industry as it also covers a significant share of TV viewership that wasn’t being measured until now.