Mumbai: The minister of information and broadcasting Anurag Thakur informed the Lok Sabha on matters concerning Broadcast Audience Research Council (Barc) India ratings and new tariff order (NTO) 2.0 during a session on Thursday.
The minister was queried whether Barc ratings were marred in serious charges of manipulation and what actions it proposed to ensure robust data.
The minister told the Lok Sabha that Barc has taken various steps on corporate governance and on streamlining of processes and their transparency. “The management involved in the ratings generation process has been institutionally removed. The oversight and technical committees within Barc have been strengthened for data validation and methodology. The access protocols for data have been revamped and tightened,” he said.
Ever since news reports published in October 2020 expressed concerns related to TV ratings, “Barc has responded by actively pursuing action against those involved in tampering the samples and had filed 11 FIRs through its vendors across many states,” stated Thakur.
The I&B ministry has also instituted a committee led by Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati to study the concerns related to television rating points (TRPs) and address them in light of fresh recommendations by Trai and technological advancements.
The I&B minister was also asked whether it has come to the notice of the government that some broadcasters are tweaking NTO 2.0 and keeping their popular channels out of the bouquet. Subsequently, whether this has led to viewers paying 50 per cent more in tariffs and in turn if the government has also fixed a maximum price for channels outside of a bouquet.
On the matter of NTO 2.0, the minister said that broadcasters have declared the maximum retail price of their popular channels above Rs 12 and are offering such channels on an a-la-carte basis.
“As per the implementation plan of new regulatory framework 2020 issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) the distribution platform operators (DPOs) are required to declare rates of channels and bouquets offered to consumers by 31 January and thereafter offering to the consumer will be made available from 1 April. Therefore, final prices for the consumers can be ascertained after 31 March when the choice of channels are exercised by consumers,” he explained.
