The move by broadcasters and advertisers to create a new television audience measurement agency, Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), may miss its January 2009 deadline due to differences over government representation on the body’s board.
Sources say at a meeting among stakeholders last week, the advertising and broadcasting industry wanted on the board two nominees of Prasar Bharati, instead of officials from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) as suggested by the broadcast regulator.
“The government is keen to position two senior officials from the I&B ministry on the board, something totally unacceptable to the industry-led body,” said a source close to the development. BARC favoured officials from public broadcaster Prasar Bharati, comprising Doodarshan and All India Radio, as it is an autonomous body. BARC, say sources, is wary of direct government intervention.
The regulator, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), has also suggested representation from other government departments like the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, the National Council of Applied Economic Research and the Indian Statistical Institute. This has been opposed by BARC’s promoters.
“Now a middle ground is being negotiated between Trai and the industry bodies behind BARC because of which the next month’s launch seems difficult,” said the source.
BARC has been formed by three independent industry associations — the Indian Society of Advertisers, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation and the Advertising Agencies Association of India. It has the backing of Trai.
The business of providing viewership data came under government scanner recently after despite Doordarshan’s maximum reach, its channels did not figure anywhere in the weekly rankings among private channels like Star Plus, Zee TV, Colors and others, sources in Prasar Bharati say.
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While the government has been in touch with private ratings agencies like TAM Media and aMap and even subscribes to their data, it has encouraged the setting up of BARC, say sources. Viewership data decide the flow of about Rs 8,000 crore worth of advertising revenue to television channels.
According to Trai’s recommendation, BARC has to be functional from next month. According to Trai, BARC will have to set up a governing board made up of government officials, advertisers and broadcasters, among others.
BARC, according to Trai, will be subject to inspection and audit from time to time or whenever demanded by the government. Also, BARC will have to place peoplemeters in all states and that too at its own cost.
Mumbai-based TAM Media, a 50:50 venture between AC Nielson and Kantar Media, has in the recent past come under government scanner for not sharing information about its peoplemeters. This led Prasar Bharati to mull a tie-up with its rival aMap for setting up a rural panel of homes to collect and analyse ratings data exclusively for rural homes.
Peoplemeters are devices placed in homes in various towns by both TAM and aMap. The identity of such homes, however, is not revealed.