Open House Discussion held on accreditation of rating agencies

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) held an open house discussion on 01 July 2013 on framing guidelines for an accreditation mechanism for TV rating agencies in the country. 

Open House Discussions with stake holders focused on whether there should be an external regulator for the rating agencies or whether the industry should deal with it on its own. 

TRAI had earlier received a reference from the Information and Broadcasting Ministry in August 2012 seeking its advice on framing an accreditation mechanism for rating agencies. 

The TAM ratings, currently used by many advertising agencies, have been for long a subject of controversy as broadcasters ranging from Prasar Bharati to NDTV have questioned their methodology and accuracy and gone to the court against its system of ratings.

In its reference to TAM, the ministry had said the television rating measurement system in India suffers from several deficiencies and urgent action needs to be taken to put in place a credible and transparent television rating generation system. 

TRAI Chairman gave an indication that the Government was keen on regulating the TV ratings measurement system. Two things that came out of discussion were that the Government will either give the authority to TRAI to look after the ratings system as it is not in its purview currently, or TRAI will work together with BARC or any committee to come up with an alternate ratings system.

KVL Narayan Rao, Vice Chairman, NDTV Group and President, News Broadcast Association said, “The only point that I want to make is that we believe self regulation is absolutely necessary, and a structured self regulation like the IBF, NBA and setting up a BARC is exactly that.” Broadcasters preferred self regulations rather than government interference in the rating agency.

However, Khullar distinguishing between the regulator and the government said, “My issue is very simple – at the end of the day, without any support, you may have a system, but you don’t have a regulation. Whenever you lay down rules, there has to be some enforcement. That does not mean that the industry or the agency has to be regulated, it means that these rules have to be complied with.”

He asked the broadcasters, “Would you want a situation where the Government stipulates those rules and lays down what the penalties are and then enforces those, or would you prefer a situation where those rules are laid down?” He added, “When I will submit the recommendations, then this question is going to arise as to who will enforce it, and that is something which all of you in the industry need to tell me.”

Explaining the functioning of BARC, Paritosh Joshi, member of technical Committee of BARC said, “We have outlined a ratings process and data will be generated from the people meters and collated by panel management and sent back to BARC. Thus, the actual synthesis of ratings will take place only at BARC and no agency will publish the ratings. BARC will have the final control and release the ratings.”

He further said, “BARC will be the owner of the ratings; it will not be a market research agency, but will be the publisher of the ratings.”

Meanwhile, TRAI has asked the broadcasters to submit their opinions in writing by July 8, 2013.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/2702-open-house-discussion-held-on-accreditation-of-rating-agencies.html
Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/2702-open-house-discussion-held-on-accreditation-of-rating-agencies.html