BARC India vindicates BestMediaInfo’s case against four-week rolling average

New Delhi: BARC India releases data for news channels based on a four-week rolling average. However, in its press release issued on Monday defending news ratings during Operation Sindoor, it conveniently used unrolled data to make the event appear more significant than it actually was.

It is now glaringly evident that the ratings agency has effectively vindicated BestMediaInfo’s analysis that the rolling system is a direct assault on the news genre.

In the case of news, advertisers rely more on perception than just raw numbers. When rolling data creates the impression that even major national events fail to draw viewers to television news, how can the medium remain commercially viable?

BARC’s attempts to compare Operation Sindoor with previous big events further reinforce the arguments made by BestMediaInfo.

For instance, it equated Operation Sindoor with the 2024 Lok Sabha election results and various state assembly outcomes. But election viewership comes primarily from politically engaged audiences. In contrast, the India-Pakistan tensions following Operation Sindoor affected nearly every citizen.

When BARC claims that Operation Sindoor received just 19 GRPs more than the Lok Sabha results, suspicions are inevitably raised.

Comparing the GRP sum of a single-day event, where viewership peaks for a few hours, to that of a three-day event is unconvincing.

Interestingly, the GRPs for the events cited by BARC are based on the 2+ TG, raising further doubts that Operation Sindoor may have garnered fewer GRPs than the Lok Sabha results among the more relevant 15+ TG for the Hindi news genre.

One would not have expected BARC to use the 2+ TG (target group) numbers in its defence, especially when advertisers base decisions on audiences aged 15 and above, which is the widely accepted industry standard for Hindi news. For English news, the relevant TG is 22+.

From BARC India’s standpoint, it would have made more sense to restrict its comparison to events that occurred within the rolling data regime and simply note that rolled and unrolled data cannot be compared.

Instead, the agency chose to compare Operation Sindoor with the 2016 surgical strike, a single-day event, to portray Sindoor as bigger.

Conveniently, BARC chose not to include the day-wise data from the 2019 Balakot airstrike (18.6%) or the return of Group Captain Abhinandan Varthaman (24.3%), both of which garnered significantly higher viewership than Operation Sindoor.

By cherry-picking rolling and unrolled data for its press release, and omitting key figures like Balakot and Abhinandan’s return, BARC has backed itself further into a corner.

For those asking who blocked the unrolling order, BestMediaInfo had already detailed the sequence of events in its November 21, 2023, article titled “Why Modi govt made a U-turn on unrolling of viewership data for news genre”:

"A face-off between news television bodies over TRPs

Ever since BestMediaInfo.com broke the news about unrolling on Monday morning, Arnab Goswami-led News Broadcasters Federation was said to be going all out against the ministry's approval.

By 12 noon on Monday, much before the U-turn by the ministry, multiple sources told BestMediaInfo.com that BARC India was receiving desperate calls and the decision would likely be overturned.

And within a matter of 4-5 hours, BARC India received a communication from the ministry to hold the unrolling back.

It may be noted that the NBF vehemently opposed the idea of a four-week rolling average, alleging it would favour the legacy players who will get undue advantage and remain at the top.

“In fact, even if the audience data is released on a 4-week rolling average basis on March 17, 2022, the final TRPs will skew the average since it would only reflect a one-off major event of the Assembly elections and the ensuing counting day to five states, including Uttar Pradesh. The day chosen for the resumption of ratings will not give a fair and transparent picture of the actual viewership across the stakeholders - trusted viewers, advertisers and advertising agencies,” said the NBF on February 9, 2022."

Here is the full press release from BARC India:

"OPERATION SINDOOR" Weekly News Viewership Reaches the Highest Level!*

507 million Viewers watched News in BARC WK18 (3rd - 9th May 2025)  

News Genre peaked and accounted for 16% of TV Viewership during the three critical days (7th, 8th, 9th May 2025) as against the usual 6%

Mumbai

Date: 19th May 2025

BARC India's TV Viewership data during OPERATION SINDOOR shows that when it comes to a significant news event, that touches everybody's lives, people turn to television to get their news and stay updated with the latest developments.

TV News Viewership for Week 18 (3rd to 9th May) during which OPERATION SINDOOR was carried out by the Armed Forces of India, scaled a new high, even as the Nation was transfixed by events that rapidly unfolded during OPERATION SINDOOR.

This is amply reflected in TV News viewership data:

1. Highest week for Hindi News in Week18'25 (OPERATION SINDOOR)

HSM 2+/ Rat%(Sum) Note: Data considered is after Wk 10' 2022 resumption with current set of channels

2. Hindi News also clocked the highest ATS of 60 mins, an increase of 67% over ATS of Pre Pahalgam weeks (HSM 2+).

3. Hindi News share increased from 3% to 13% during Week 18 Wed-Fri (OPERATION SINDOOR) compared to Pre Pahalgam weeks. Hindi News share at 15+ HSM increased from 4% to 15%, in the same period, which is above the share it garnered during the surgical strikes in 2016.

4. Daily tune-ins increased on Hindi News on critical days (Wed-Fri):  73 Mn to 142 MN (HSM 2+)

5. Increase in viewership during MEA Briefs

HSM 2+/ AMA

6. 65 Mn New viewers (wrt to Wk12-15) tuned in to Hindi News. These New viewers had not sampled Hindi News in the last 1 month.

*Since data resumption in Week 10, 2022

** The above data is based on BARC India unrolled database.