BARC India preparing for four-week rolling average data for news and niche genres

BARC India is gearing up to resume viewership data for the news genre, which was put on hold on October 15, 2020 in the wake of the alleged TRP scam busted by Mumbai Police. The then Police Commissioner of Mumbai, Param Bir Singh, in a press conference on October 8, 2020, had accused Republic TV, Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema of manipulating TRPs by bribing panel homes.

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Although the ratings were paused for a period of 8-12 weeks, it took about seven months to show the green signal to resume them in a new avatar. Sources close to the development told BestMediaInfo.com that the ratings for the news and niche genres will be released on a four-week rolling average basis.

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BARC India is said to be working on the existing software YUMI Analytics to accommodate the viewership of the news and niche genres on the basis of four-week rolling average within the same software and this process may take one more month.

The rating agency is expected to resume the ratings for news channels after it gets a go-ahead from the government. It may be recalled that the government had stepped in by forming a committee headed by Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati to submit a report on the TRP ratings. The committee submitted its report on January 12 to the I&B Ministry and is waiting for further action.

Sources within the ministry told BestMediaInfo.com that the government may take action on the report after the assembly elections are over.

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