Govt set to deliberate on TV ratings guidelines

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI's) recommendations are seeing movement to enable them to serve as the gold standard for television ratings. Currently with the law ministry, the file relating to TV rating guidelines is expected to be presented to the Cabinet very soon.

The TRAI had come up with its own analysis and recommendations around how TV ratings should be done in India following  discussions with the various stakeholders in September 2013; with the Union Cabinet expected to deliberate and give it sanction soon it could well be en route to become law. 

According to Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), “The recommendations are fair and are neither pro nor against any measuring body. However, it is very clear that it will be passed by the cabinet.”

Amongst the recommendations is that any agency wanting to offer TV viewership monitoring or rating services has to perforce get itself registered with the ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) if it fulfills the following guidelines: "The rating agency shall be set up and registered as a company under the Companies Act, 1956; any member of the board of directors of the television rating agency should not be in the business of broadcasting/ advertising/advertising agency; the rating agency should have a minimum net worth of Rs 20 crore; the rating agency should also meet the prescribed cross-holdings requirements."

TRAI had also stated that to keep the ratings process credible, there should be a minimum of 20,000 panel homes which have to be set up within six months of the guidelines being implemented. Thereafter the number of panel homes has to be increased by 10,000 every year until it reaches 50,000.

To meet and fulfill the last criteria, TAM, the current measuring body, will have to invest a large sum of moolah ( Rs 100 crore plus) every year. This could well be a major challenge for it, if sources are to be believed. For the Indian broadcast industry, has pretty much been chary of funding any of its expansion plans, in the past.

However, the source adds that most stakeholders involved in it hope that TAM will be able to participate in the working of BARC as well.

Whatever be the case, one thing is clear BARC is no more suffering teething problems and will sooner than later  bring about a paradigm shift in the audience measuring game in India. And as far as TAM goes, it needs come up to scratch and follow the TRAI guidelines.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/3746-govt-set-to-deliberate-on-tv-ratings-guidelines.htmlSource: http://cablequest.org/news/national-news/item/3746-govt-set-to-deliberate-on-tv-ratings-guidelines.html