BMI Impact: BARC India to report unrolled viewership data for news genre

New Delhi: The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India on Monday announced that it will report unrolled television viewership data only, thus ending the four-week rolling average system for all genres.

The decision, effective from Week 24’25 (14th–20th June 2025), comes in the wake of exclusive investigative reporting by BestMediaInfo.com that exposed anomalies and industry concerns around Operation Sindoor’s ratings.

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

Starting 26th June 2025, BARC will publish weekly viewership estimates without rolling averages.

In a communication to subscribers, BARC cautioned stakeholders against comparing ADRS (rolled data) with the new weekly unrolled numbers.

BestMediaInfo’s sustained coverage of the impact of Operation Sindoor, including irregularities in the reporting period and concerns voiced by multiple broadcasters, sparked widespread debate about transparency and the need for more granular data.

As per the BARC advisory, the new methodology will provide weekly snapshots of channel performance, giving advertisers and broadcasters a more immediate and accurate picture of audience behaviour.

However, BARC has clarified that historical unrolled data for the period when only rolled averages were published will not be made available retrospectively.

Key operational clarifications include:

• Single YUMI login for subscribers remains unchanged.
• Genre and language classification continues as per BARC policy.
• Special YUMI licences will remain operative for broadcasters to access unrolled data for their own channels and historical analysis.
• Unrolled data unavailable for back-periods: Channels without released unrolled data during previous rolled periods will not receive retrospective unrolled datasets.

With this decisive move, BARC appears to have responded directly to the questions and demands for transparency raised by BestMediaInfo’s ongoing Operation Sindoor series.

The shift to weekly unrolled ratings is set to empower the industry with greater clarity, and is widely seen as a step toward more credible, accountable measurement practices in Indian television.