BARC India's panel design and household selection get Indian Statistical Institute stamp

BARC India, which manages the largest TV panel in the world, has been certified by the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata, for its sampling methodology and panel design. The certification is for the original design of 22,000 homes and the expanded 33,000 panel.

It is important to note that BARC India has seeded its Bar-O-Meters in a scientifically selected set of panel homes to collect TV viewership data. Panel home designing is critical to ensure that viewership data is representative of the TV universe, and accurately reflects what India is watching.

The representativeness of BARC India’s panel – the cornerstone of its TV Viewership measurement system – was earlier certified by CESP, a global multi-media body that audits media research as well as Ernst & Young (EY).

This is also borne out by what’s visible in the data. Even the smallest change in content, distribution, electricity, or weather conditions is reflected in the ratings of a mass genre.

“The sampling methodology suggested by BARC India for Universe estimation is a reasonable one. This method is also a feasible one for implementation in practice. Overall, BARC India panel designs adopted for panel expansion as well as for TV Universe estimates ensures representativeness of ground realities given the constraints,” said Ashis SenGupta of ISI, Kolkata.

Partho Dasgupta

“ISI Kolkata’s endorsement of our panel design and sampling methodology is yet another validation of our ability to measure what India watches. It is indeed a challenging task to accurately map TV viewing habits of 780 million individuals in a highly diverse and dynamic market like ours. I am proud of team BARC India, which has lived up to industry’s expectation to deliver accurate, credible and robust viewership data, day-on-day, week after week. It is also a testament to the systems and technology backbone that we have set up, which is of global standards,” said Partho Dasgupta, CEO, BARC India.

This study by ISI Kolkata was spread over six months and certifies the panel home design used by BARC India for seeding Bar-O-Meters at both 22,000 as well as 33,000 panel homes levels. It also identifies any modifications required for panel expansion to 44,000 homes.

According to the ISI Kolkata report, the universe estimate used and the spatial coverage adopted by BARC India is reasonable and representative.

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