 "New norms for leadership claims by TV channels")
Learning from the 15-year stint of erstwhile TV ratings provider TAM India and drawing from the experience of the sector as a whole, the Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) has taken steps towards providing a transparent environment for gauging the television viewership in India.
The ratings agency under BARC has drawn up guidelines/principles for fair and permissible usage of data by subscribers. These are especially applicable when a broadcaster claims leadership position in a particular genre, time-slot or geographical territory.
BARC is an industry body with various stakeholders —broadcasters, the advertising sector and advertising/media agencies — all coming together to provide a single currency of television ratings in the country.
In a newsletter, it said, “A leader is not created overnight. A given moment or in a given day, on a particular day, someone might be ahead or behind. This does not constitute leadership. Using such a momentary blip is a very weak foundation on which to base a leadership claim.”
The council has said the period of comparison must cover at least four consecutive weeks of data and at least four consecutive hours of data. In other words, a channel/network cannot claim leadership unless it has beaten its peers in terms of average viewership through four consecutive weeks. Additionally, it cannot consider data for less than four consecutive hours of programming. So, if a channel wants to claim prime-time leadership position, it cannot consider a slot such as 8.30 pm to 9.15 pm; it has to consider content consumption through four consecutive hours.
BARC has also said no subscriber can use tabulation other than the direct outputs of its India’s Broadcast Media Workstation (BMW) user interface. Any number derived by extrapolating or interpolating BMW outputs is barred from being used in the public domain. BMW is the ratings software subscribers to BARC ratings get for analysis.
As the software does not churn out data for parameters that reduce the sample size to less than 200, the margin of error is minimised, especially for niche channels.
The ratings agency has also advised subscribers not to report ratings or reach as percentage value in the public domain. The BARC website, which updates ratings every Thursday, reports ratings in absolute value, not in percentage terms.
While BARC cannot take action against companies that don’t adhere to these guidelines, complaints can be raised with the Advertising Standards Council of India.
GUIDELINES FOR LEADERSHIP
-
The guidelines are applicable when a broadcaster claims leadership position in a particular genre, time slot geographical territory
-
A channel/network cannot claim leadership unless it has beaten its peers in terms of average viewership over four consecutive weeks
-
No subscriber can use any tabulations other than the e- direct outputs of BARC India’s Broadcast Media Workstation (BMW) user interface
-
The new ratings agency has advised subscribers not to report ratings or reach as a percentage value in the public domain
