Endorsing the initiative from broadcasters and advertisers of forming an industry-led television ratings agency body, the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) today issued its draft recommendations in the matter.
The draft recommends nomination of two representatives of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) on the board of directors of BARC.
The I&B ministry will need to formulate the key eligibility norms for the selection of rating agencies and BARC will have to sign a memorandum of understanding with the ministry for making its organisational structure, functioning and methodology among others, the draft added. Also, BARC will be subjected to a mandatory audit and the ministry can call for any data or details related with it from BARC.
However, Trai said a direct intervention of the 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".
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 in the rating process.
Trai has submitted its draft recommendations at the behest of the I&B ministry after it had sought recommendations of Trai on the system of television ratings and the policy guidelines to be adopted for rating agencies.
On cross-holding restrictions on 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 any stake in the rating agencies.
Commenting on the initiative, a senior executive from a leading broadcast company said: "As long as the government's role gets limited in monitoring the ratings business, it will help bring in the elements of transparency that is not there currently."
Currently, the television ratings business is monitored by two private agencies