Govt Sets Up Committee to Review Norms on TRP Ratings Measurement

The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has issued an advisory to all private satellite TV channels to adhere to Programme Code under the Cable Television Network (Regulation) Act, 1995.

(Photo: Erum Gour/The Quint)

Stating that there is a need for a ‘fresh look’ into the television rating guidelines, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry issued an order to set up a committee to look into the matter.

The committee has four members, who are Shashi Shekhar Vempati, CEO, Prasar Bharti as chairman and Dr. Shalabh, professor of statistics, department of mathematics and statistics, IIT Kanpur, Dr. Rajkumar Upadhyay, executive director, C-DOT (Centre for Development of Telematics) and Professor Pulak Ghosh, Decision Sciences Centre for Public Policy (CPP) as members. The order states that they will have to submit a report to the I&B minister within the next two months.

The order read, “Based on the operation of the guidelines for a few years, there is need to have a fresh look…particularly keeping in view the recent recommendations of Trai, technological advancements or interventions to address the system and (for) further strengthening of the procedures for a credible and transparent rating system, a Committee is hereby constituted to study different aspects of the television rating system in India as they have evolved over a period of time.”

“The Committee shall carry out an appraisal of the existing system, examine Trai recommendations notified from time to time, overall industry scenario and addressing the needs of the stakeholders and make recommendations for a robust, transparent and accountable rating system through changes, if any, in the existing guidelines," it added.

The present guidelines issued by the MIB on television rating agencies in India were notified after deliberations by the Parliamentary Committee, Committee on Television Rating Points (TRP) constituted by the MIB and recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority etc, the order read.

However, over the last few months, the TRP system in India has been under the scanner. Three news channels, Republic TV, Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema were named in an alleged TRP tampering scam. BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council) decided to temporarily suspend the publishing of weekly data for news channels for a few weeks as a consequence.