With the union minister for information and broadcasting Priyaranjan Dasmunsi stating in Parliament that television rating points (TRPs) is a ?game plan?, the television industry is confused and divided, albeit emphatic on the relevance of the existing rating methods.
Dasmunshi had said, ?I know TRP is a game plan. There are only 6,000 fixed households through which ratings are detected. They are ignoring the entire north east, Bihar, and areas like eastern UP.? He added that these figures fluctuate like the stock market for the benefit of channels.
Ravi Kiran, CEO for South East and South Asia, Starcom MediaVest Group, said, ?The biggest stakeholders in this business are advertisers, media agencies and broadcasters. Any attempt without the participation of these three bodies is not viable. There is, of course, a better method for everything, but it is difficult to say that for TV ratings, government is the best organisation to do the job.? Most of the channels currently feel that advertisers need some sort of report card or quantum before they can invest, which TAM is providing. However, certain sections of the industry also feel that TAM or aMap?s people metre is not adequate, as it does not cover rural India, which actually constitutes a majority of the Indian population.
However, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF) feels that neither the government nor the audiences should bother about the rating system, as it affects all the three stakeholders – broadcasters, advertisers, and ad agencies.
Naresh Chahal, secretary general, IBF said, ?The company that we are forming will be called Broadcasters Audience Research Council (BARC) and will replace the Joint Industry Body. This will have equal representation from the IBF, the Indian Society of Advertisers, and the Advertising Agencies Association of India. Our sample size will be at least three to four times more than the existing sample size of TAM.? This council will be formed under Section 25 of Indian Company Act, and will be DTH and CAS compatible, which TAM doesn?t address and will include Bihar and the north eastern regions.
Interestingly, the minister?s comments and the debate over government interference come at a time when the industry is gearing up to transform from analogue to digital and when the television advertising pie is touching Rs 7,700 crore in India.