NBF asks Competition Commission to probe ‘abuse’ of dominant position by BARC

The absence of ratings has impacted the news broadcasting fraternity deeply. While a school of broadcasters feel the rating measurement body should get a considerable time off to come back not just clean but more efficient, another is doing everything in their capacity to reverse the situation. In a bid to ensure ratings returns at the earliest, News Broadcasters Federation (NBF) has written to the chairperson of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) Ashok Kumar Gupta requesting them to investigate “monopoly” practice of BARC India and its impact on FTA news channels in the county.

The Competition Commission of India is a statutory government body responsible for enforcing The Competition Act and preventing activities that have an appreciable adverse effect on competition.

The letter, written out on Wednesday, pleads the statutory body to take up the issue urgently and investigate in order to safeguard the lives and livelihood of thousands of journalists, media executives, investors and owners of news TV channels.

The letter highlights the importance of ratings and talks about how it is relevant for the broadcasting ecosystem.
“We, News Broadcasters Federation, herein bring to your kind attention to the anti-competitive and abuse of dormant position by Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) against FTA news television channels,” said the letter.

“India has about 900 satellite channels of which news is the single largest genre within the satellite broadcasting sector. Almost all channels, including news channels, depend on advertising revenue which is based on Gross Rating Points (GRPs) for the channels as well as television rating points for the individual programme. GRPs and TRPs are audience measurement metrics collected, collated and released by BARC,” the letter reads.

Emphasizing on the relevance of ratings the letter says, “BARC is the sole audience measurement company in India, while their GRPs are a single trade currency widely accepted by advertisers, advertising agencies, and broadcasters.”

According to a senior member of the body, since October 15, 2020, BARC unilaterally decided to single out news genre by unreasonably pausing ratings only of news genre for 8-12 weeks albeit initially pointing out how there were manipulations in ratings by at least three channels--two entertainment channels and one news channel.
The news broadcasters’ body questions the reason behind continuation of ratings for entertainment channels while news has to suffer in the absence of it.

Also, according to the body, the credibility of TV news broadcast industry has become questionable in the whole episode. “The airtime is a perishable commodity, and lack of ratings has incapacitated us from monetizing our performance while suffering potential revenue loss of at least Rs 2,000 crore as the ratings were made unavailable during the crucial festive period also when the advertising market had started showing signs of initial recovery,” the letter pointed out.

NBF is a trade body of television news channels. Its members include the likes of Dighvijay, DY365 News, First India Rajasthan, Gulistan News, IBC24, India News, JK 24X7, Living India News, News Live, News Nation, NewsX, North East Live, Odisha TV, Prag News, MH One News, PuthiyaThalaimurai TV, Newsfirst Kannada, Republic Bharat, Republic TV, S Newz, TV5, and Twenty Four News.