I&B ministry asks BARC to release news ratings with immediate effect

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Wednesday resumed ratings for news channels.

The Ministry asked the Broadcasting Audience Research Council (BARC) to release news ratings with immediate effect along with last three months' data in a monthly format.

The BARC had suspended the ratings system in October 2020.

The Ministry said in a statement, "In the spirit of the TRP committee report and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) recommendation dated April 28, BARC has undertaken revision in its processes, protocols, oversight mechanism and initiated changes in governance structure etc.

"The reconstitution of the board and the technical committee to allow for the induction of independent members has also been initiated by BARC. A permanent oversight committee has also been formed. The access protocols for data have been revamped and tightened."

The Ministry mentioned that BARC has indicated that in view of the changes undertaken by it, it is reaching out to related constituencies to explain the new proposals and is in readiness to actually commence the release as per the new protocols.

"Taking note of the above, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has asked BARC to release news ratings with immediate effect and also to release the last three months' data for the genre in a monthly format, for fair and equitable representation of true trends. As per the revised system, the reporting of news and niche genres shall be on a 'four-week rolling average concept'," the Ministry said.

The Ministry has also set up a 'Working Group' under the chairmanship of the CEO, Prasar Bharti, for the consideration of leveraging the Return Path Data (RPD) capabilities for the use of TRP services, as also recommended by TRAI and the TRP committee report. The panel shall submit its report in four months' time.

--IANS

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