Unrolled ratings an integrity test, challenge news broadcasters to evolve

New Delhi: As the television news genre prepares to welcome unrolled viewership data after three years, three months, and two weeks, the boardrooms of news broadcasters are already busy strategising how to exploit the new regime to their advantage.

Beginning Thursday, the unrolling event is expected to disrupt the pecking order with ‘real’ weekly reach data reporting, replacing the not-so-foolproof reach mechanism developed by BARC India.

Also Read: BARC’s shift to weekly unrolled ratings: What it means for news genre

Data analysts have long alleged that the rolled reach numbers were neither ‘purely average’ nor ‘purely weekly’. Instead, they saw it as a middle path taken by BARC India to solve the reach puzzle.

News broadcasters are expected to have evolved in their approach regarding the return of the old data reporting regime. They are now more aware of what led to the adoption of the four-week rolling average and the opportunities that unrolling brings to the table.

The enforcement of the rolling regime was not due to everyone’s strong desire to become number one; after all, every business aspires to this. Players in other genres have similar goals.

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

The real reason behind the rolling mechanism stemmed from the “public showdown” instinct.

The news genre is perhaps fully aware that their public showdown instincts, which led to the situation they are in, ultimately helped advertisers suppress ad rates.

Now, the more mature news broadcasters are confining the showdown to presentations for advertisers. They are aware that the public display of showdown instincts previously harmed the entire news genre.

They now aim to emulate the way other genres behave, despite the fact that their business is highly data-driven.

Also Read: Advertisers brace for major reset with unrolling of news viewership data

In contrast, the news business is not entirely data-driven; perception and B2B demand from retailers play a big role in buying decisions for news inventories.

Although this isn’t a new revelation, it took more than three years under the rolling regime for news broadcasters to realise that a combination of all three – data, perception, and b2b demand – is necessary to achieve the desired ad rates.

They have realised that shouting from the rooftops will not save them from the onslaught of digital media. Instead, improving perception may help safeguard them from digital onslaught as well as boost ad rates.

This new enlightenment is expected to change the behaviour of news broadcasters to better protect the business interests of the genre.

BestMediaInfo.com will do its part by not fueling the mad race again and has consciously decided not to report the rating numbers released today for the news genre.