Mumbai: The Broadcast Audience Research Council (Barc) has updated its policy for the release of a channel’s viewership data in March. As per the new policy, Barc can facilitate the suspension of individual channel data for a minimum period of six months on request from the broadcaster.
“The ratings for the suspended period will not be released publicly at any point in the future, even after the recommencement of the ratings,” as per the policy.
Barc will also exercise its right to suspend the ratings of a channel in case of payment issues, non-renewal of subscription, or any other breach by the subscriber. The ratings of the suspended channel will only be released six months after the resolution of the issues that resulted in the discontinuation of services. The ratings during the suspended period will not be released publicly after recommencement of the channel ratings.
However, Barc may continue to monitor and deliver playout monitoring of the channel to other YUMI subscribers without the viewership data.
Barc India has stated that it requires a minimum period of four to eight weeks to perform the required technical checks and data validation before releasing a channel’s data publicly. Barc has also requested broadcasters to keep a significant lead time for the watermarking process which may take between eight to 12 weeks time.
A channel can avail channel level viewership data provided by Barc but data that is provided prior to the public release of ratings of the channel is confidential and may be used for internal analysis only. Barc follows that Saturday to Friday week format and releases data publicly via the YUMI software every Thursday.
Barc will no longer release data starting from midweek and broadcasters must inform Barc about the date from which the data is required to be released ten working days prior to the week of release. If Barc does not receive a request to release channel data in YUMI within 12 weeks of being watermarked, Barc India may stop monitoring the channel and capturing the viewership of the channel.
