Larger sample size needed for BARC to measure viewership, says Zee Media

Comments come as the broadcaster becomes the second to exit the body in seven months

Zee Media, which has pulled out of the Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) over viewership measurement concerns, has said the body needs to have a larger number of people meters for robust measurement.

For the uninitiated, people meters are electronic devices that record the television viewing habits of a household. BARC has 44,000 such people meters in the country.

"We have repeatedly pointed out that a far larger sample size of people meters is needed, if BARC is serious about ensuring a measurement process that cannot be rigged or manipulated. However, BARC has failed to address this issue so far," Zee Media said in a statement to Business Standard.

Zee Media, which has 14 news channels in 10 languages, is the second broadcaster in seven months to exit BARC. In March, New Delhi Television (NDTV) had exited the measurement system after highlighting similar concerns.

BARC officials were not immediately available for comment. But the body had taken a nearly 18-month pause from reporting news viewership data between October 2020 and March 2022. The objective was to utilise this period to increase its sample size from 44,000 people meters to 50,000 people meters. But the Covid-19 pandemic had hampered efforts to increase the number of people meters, industry experts said.

The body did change its viewership reporting method for news channels, though, taking audience estimates on a four-week rolling average basis to arrive at viewership numbers for a particular week. This would improve the stability of numbers, BARC had said in March.

But Zee Media says that this reporting structure has no meaning at all. "BARC’s new process of data reporting, which is a four-week rolling average versus the earlier daily/weekly reporting of data is a big concern. The data (as reported now) has no meaning or outcome to content producers, since they cannot plan or validate content performance," the broadcaster said.

Zee Media also pointed to the measurement of viewership coming from landing pages as another issue of concern. Simply put, landing pages are default channels that appear once the television is switched on. Broadcasters from general entertainment to news and even sports channels have used this method to increase viewership and stickiness among audiences.

However, Zee Media says that this practice is not ethical and impacts the viewership of channels that do not do subscribe to it. “BARC has not given any solution nor accepted that it continues to report landing pages, which impact ratings favourably for those who use it versus those who do not subscribe to this practice,” it said.

In the past, bodies such as the News Broadcasters and Digital Association as well as the News Broadcasters Federation have raised this issue, asking BARC to stop reporting viewership data coming from landing pages. They have also asked BARC to increase the duration for counting viewership to two minutes to improve transparency.