Audience measurement norms eased: Meet the potential individual players

New Delhi: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, on July 2, proposed amendments in the ‘Policy Guidelines for Television Rating Agencies in India’ to remove significant entry barriers for entities willing to enter the audience measurement business.

For long, it was alleged that the government wanted BARC to be the only agency involved in audience measurement. Through the proposed amendments, the I&B ministry is seeking to change the narrative.

What will change?

The I&B ministry has proposed amendments in clause 1 that lays down guidelines for the eligibility of rating agencies and entities to conduct television audience measurement. These policy guidelines were formulated by the government of India in 2014.

As per the notice issued on Wednesday, the significant proposed changes are the deletion of clause 1.5 and clause 1.7. 

Clause 1.5 currently bars any director of a television rating company from being engaged in the business of broadcasting, advertising, or running an advertising agency. 

Clause 1.7 deals with cross-holding restrictions, typically intended to prevent ownership conflicts between related entities. 

The ministry has also proposed scrapping the proviso to Clause 1, which exempted BARC India or any other industry-led body from these restrictions.

Collectively, these changes are intended to open up India’s television audience measurement sector. After TAM India, BARC is the sole organisation measuring TV viewership data in India for over a decade.

The proposed amendments mark a reversal of the approach the government adopted over a decade ago. BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council) was bolstered with the idea that an industry-driven body, instead of a single entity, would carry out the behemoth task of TV ratings.

The institutionalisation of this industry-driven body was done after the recommendation of the committee chaired by Dr Amit Mitra, the then secretary general at FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry). The Committee was constituted in the backdrop of deficiencies in the system of generation of Television Rating Points (TRPs) in India and its possible impact on the programming content of TV channels.

At the time, the government said the committee would examine “whether an industry-led body like BARC, as recommended by TRAI, is the most appropriate mechanism to create TRPs without the existing deficiencies.”

Who can apply for setting up an audience measurement system?

The policy guidelines of 2014 effectively restricted an individual broadcaster or a distribution platform operator (DPO) from entering the audience measurement business.

With this proposed amendment, any firm can enter into the broadcast audience measurement business, subject to the condition that the other obligations of the guidelines are met.

While BARC India was created by a joint industry body involving IBDF, AAAI and ISA, other industry associations, such as IAMAI, AIDCF, NBDA or NBDF, were also eligible to create a parallel currency. 

Among these industry bodies, NBDA or NBDF had major issues with BARC India. The news broadcasters historically alleged that BARC was largely serving the interests of large broadcasters.

On the other hand, IAMAI and its members, including top OTT and digital platforms, always flagged the lack of unified measurement.

However, no one else came forward to set up a measurement body in the past decade, owing to the huge investment running into hundreds of crores.

For independent firms, the I&B ministry engaged TAM India and invited several other companies for discussion to set up a measurement currency. The question of a huge investment to meet the other obligations always remained a big block.

As the proposed amendments allow individual broadcasters to enter the measurement business, the question remains the same – who has that deep pocket with a surplus of Rs 200-300 crore for the audience measurement business?

Broadcasters like JioStar, which is about half of the total size of the Indian broadcast industry, can set up a parallel measurement body with the relaxed entry norms. 

Several industry veterans told BestMediaInfo.com that despite being the largest stakeholder in IBDF, which is again the largest stakeholder in BARC, JioStar may look at setting up or backing another currency.

However, some pointed out that the broadcasters may not prefer to enter the measurement business independently unless it has the tag of an industry-led initiative.

Cable industry body, AIDCF, which has been claiming a sharp drop in the viewership of TV channels, or their members, including DPOs owned by Reliance, may be another contender. However, multiple industry veterans denied any such possibility.

The DTH platforms, such as Tata Play or Airtel Digital TV, have the chance to come up with a measurement currency.

Both the DTH players have millions of Return Path Data (RPD) enabled set-top boxes, and they use the viewership data for internal usage. 

About five years back, when Airtel Digital TV attempted to sell its viewership data to its clients, the ministry intervened and asked them to either register as a measurement firm or share the data with BARC India.

Despite the government’s push for the inclusion of RPD into the existing measurement system, none of the DTH players or DPOs agreed to share the data with BARC India.

With the norms being eased, the struggling DTH players could see a business sense in audience measurement.