Endorsing the initiative from broadcasters and advertisers of forming an industry led television ratings agency body called BARC--Broadcast Audience Research Council--the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) today issued its draft recommendations in the matter.
Important recommendations from Trai include the nomination of two representatives of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) on the board of directors of BARC, I&B ministry to formulate the key eligibility norms for the selection of rating agencies under BARC, and BARC will have to sign a memorandum of understanding with the I&B ministry for making its organisational structure, functioning and methodology among others. Also, BARC will be subjected to a mandatory audit and the I&B ministry can call for any data or details related with the data from BARC.
However, Trai said that a direct intervention of Government in the ratings business was not desirable. "Any form of governmental intervention in the form of an enactment of law is not desirable at this stage," TRAI said and favoured "self-regulation".
Currently the television ratings business is monitored by two private agencies--TAM Media Research and aMap and the Government has no role in the process or manner in which ratings are derived. According to industry estimates, the ratings of TV shows and the channels influence about Rs 8,000 crore worth of advertising revenue that is generated via television.
Apart from nominees from the I&B ministry, BARC will also have nominees from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata.
Trai has recommended that BARC will not undertake audience measurement directly but will have to resort to an open, transparent bidding process for the various stages involved in the rating process.
More From This Section
Trai has submitted its draft recommendations at the behest of I&B ministry after it had sought recommendations of Trai on the system and framework of television ratings and the policy guidelines to be adopted for rating agencies. The I&B ministry had broadly indicated to Trai to make its recommendations for a ratings agency under an appropriate framework which ensures transparency, independence of rating agencies and increased coverage reflecting the plurality of regions and viewership.
On cross holding restrictions in BARC, the broadcast regulator has recommended that no single company will hold more than 10 per cent equity in the holding company either directly or indirectly and the promoters and directors of BARC will not have stake in the rating agencies.
Commenting on the initiative, a senior executive from a leading broadcast company said: "As long as government's role gets limited in monitoring of the ratings business, it will help bring in the elements of transparency that is not there currently."