To make the television ratings system more transparent and cogent, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued a consultation paper on Friday over setting up a policy guideline for Television Audience Measurement (TAM) and Television Rating Points (TRPs).
The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting had asked TRAI to submit a proposal in this regard to check whether TAM or TRP system needs any guidelines or any regulation so that the television rating system can be made more clear and relevant. Ministry has also directed TRAI to evaluate the present form of Rating agencies and system as these rating agencies put dogmatic impact over public and market by providing TRPs.
As per ministry directive, TRAI has issued a consultation paper asking the comments from stakeholders, including advertisers and broadcasters on “whether there is a need for the government to regulate the TRP system or not?”
TRAI has also asked the comments on various issues like setting standards for rating agencies, criteria of measuring TRPs, eligibility of the rating agencies, guidelines for setting sample size and minimum coverage area required to determine the ratings, and the scope and role of rating agencies in the advertising and media market.
I&B ministry, by this proposal has sought ways to encourage other agencies for measuring fair TRPs that can enhance the competition and also expand the coverage area of rating, as currently Rating Agencies only cover the big cities where the population is over 1,00,000.
“Their operations are limited to a few large cities with a population above one lakh and none of the two agencies covers the state of J&K. Within big cities too, their sample size is limited,” said TRAI.
The regulatory has also asked stakeholders to post their views on whether there should be obligatory audits of rating agencies, what should be the qualification of auditors, the range of the audit and who should the auditors report to?
TRAI has fixed the deadlines for sending comments by April 21.
At, present, there are only two private agencies that measures the TRPs in India: aMap (Audience Measurement and Analytics Ltd.) and TAM media research.
India has a broad range of advertising market and the ratings of these agencies influence the channel and program up to great extent as advertising companies decide the rate of the advertising on the name of channel, name of the program and its broadcasting time.
There are more than 300 channels in India that covers a hefty Rs.7000-crore of advertising market and in future, the market of advertising and number of channels is likely to boom.
So, the false and misleading rating through by massive market pressure can mislead the broadcasters, advertisers and viewers.
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