Fake TV Ratings Case | FAQs: Why Has BARC Decided To Suspend TRP For 12 Weeks? Which Genres Will Be Impacted?

After making the huge announcement, BARC released Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) to clear further doubts regarding their move. Below are the FAQs.

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Fake TRP Case: In the wake of the fake TV ratings case in which some of the news channels were found to be manipulating the survey sample for the ratings of the channels, the Broadcast Audience Research Council  (BARC) has suspended the TRP or the Television Rating Point system for all the news channels, in an unprecedented step. Its decision is for all Hindi, Regional, English News and Business News channels and is implemented with immediate effect. Notably, a massive scam impacting TRPs was being carried out by a few channels. It came to light when the ratings agency filed a complaint through Hansa Research Group, alleging that certain television channels were rigging TRP numbers. The police have named Republic TV, India Today TV, Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema among the accused after its discreet investigation in the past few days. It is alleged that attempts were made to bribe families at whose houses metres for collecting data of viewership were installed, to tilt the TRP in the favour of the particular channel. After making the huge announcement, BARC released Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) to clear further doubts regarding their move. Q: Why has BARC India taken the step of not releasing TRP for news channels? A: The decision has been taken in the wake of the TRP scam that has come to light recently. The ratings agency has said in its statement that it intends to review and augment the current standards of measuring and reporting the data of niche genres, in order to improve their statistical robustness and to thwart the attempts of infiltrating the panel homes. Q: Which genres or channels will be affected by this change? A: As per BARC, the decision to suspend TRPs will impact all Hindi, Regional, English news and Business news broadcasters. However, BARC will continue to provide estimates for the overall news genre every week by state and language. Q:  For how long will the TRPs remain suspended for news channels? A: As BARC will be reworking the rule of sets in this regard, it said that the exercise would take around 8-12 weeks including validation and testing. The stakeholders will be kept updated about when the system will resume. Q:What data will not be available after the ratings are suspended? A: Availability of the following viewership variables will be impacted:

• Impressions
• Daily reach
• Average Time Spent (ATS)
• Cumulative reach
• Rating percentage

Q: What will be the effect or non-availability of the above pointers? Due to lack of the above information, the analysis such as viewer movement and Behavioural Track Analysis will not be possible. However, the above details will be available at a genre level. Q:  Will BARC be collecting and processing data for impacted channels during this period? Will the individual channel data be released post this period? A: BARC will continue to collect and process data for the impacted channels. BARC Technical Committee will advise a protocol for the release of individual channel data, post its work on niche channels. Q: Will playout data be collected during this period for the impacted channels? A: Yes   Q: Will Spot Trek service be impacted due to this withholding of ratings? A: No, there will be no impact on Spot Trek service. Q: Are the numbers released by BARC inclusive of the impacted news channels? A: The data for news channels will still be included in the audience estimates for aggregate such as Total TV. It is only the audience estimates for the individual channels that will be masked. Q: What data will be reported for the impacted news channels? A: Audience estimates for the overall news genre will be released every week by state and language, but the channel-wise data, which provides audience estimates for individual channels will not be issued. Q: Which channel is classified as a news channel? A: As per the BARC Policy on Genre Classification, a TV channel is classified as a news channel, when more than 60% of the TV Channel content for a given week averaged across a calendar quarter from 6:00 Hrs. – 26:00 Hrs, consists of news and news-related content. Disclaimer: The above FAQs have are based on information released by BARC. The questions and answers are not intended to be exhaustive, are in the nature of general information and do not constitute professional advice for your particular question, issue or concern.