Manipulation of Television Rating Points

Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh reported that police are looking into a scam about manipulation of TRPs (Television Rating Points) by rigging the devices used by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India, which has the mandate to measure television audience in India.

Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2020

Key-Points

TRPs represent how many people, from which socio-economic categories, watched which channels for how much time during a particular period.

This could be for an hour, a day, or even a week; India follows the international standard of one minute. The data is usually made public every week.

For calculating TRP, BARC has installed “BAR-O-meters” in over 45,000 empanelled households. These households are classified into 12 categories under the New Consumer Classification System (NCCS)

Television ratings in turn influence programmes produced for the viewers. Better ratings would promote a programme while poor ratings will discourage a programme.

TRPs are the main currency for advertisers to decide which channel to advertise on by calculating the cost-per-rating-point (CPRP).

BARC is an industry body jointly owned by advertisers, ad agencies, and broadcasting companies, represented by The Indian Society of Advertisers, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation and the Advertising Agencies Association of India.

Though it was created in 2010, the I&B Ministry notified the Policy Guidelines for Television Rating Agencies in India in 2014 and registered BARC in July 2015 under these guidelines, to carry out television ratings in India.