News Broadcasters Federation, the largest congregation of news broadcasters including Republic TV, TV9, Asianet and most major regional TV news networks, has expressed displeasure over the failure of BARC to publish the viewership ratings of news channels in the country. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Wednesday (12 January 2022) had issued a directive to BARC to resume the release of ratings with immediate effect, but the same has not been done yet.
BARC had suspended the publication of weekly viewership ratings following the allegations of manipulation by India Today TV and two other networks had emerged in 2020. However, the controversy had taken an ugly turn after Mumbai Police had targeted Republic TV in the case, instead of taking action against India Today which was named in the complaint and the FIR.
NBF has said that it is deeply disappointed over BARC withholding the television ratings for the news genre, despite clear directions from the Ministry to resume it with immediate effect. The News broadcasters Federation (NBF) in a press release said that the audience viewership data for new channels is with BARC and withholding it despite clear instruction from the Ministry, is not necessary.
The Press release asks BARC to comply with the order from the ministry and release the news genre ratings without any further delay. It reads, “The BARC should comply and release the ratings of news channels without any further delay. If there are news channels that don’t want ratings they can be voluntarily exempt.” The request is in light of the losses suffered by the News broadcasters in advertising as the performance ratings of News channels were not released.
“NBF calls upon BARC to release the ratings and not delay this any further, to put an end to the severe challenge the news genre was facing as advertising was deeply hurt in absence of any ratings,” he federation further said.
The BARC was asked to resume publication of TRP data after a halt of 16 months following the alleged charges on manipulation of ratings in October 2020. Revoking the curb, The I & B ministry on Wednesday said, “We have asked BARC to release the News ratings with immediate effect and also to release the last three months data, for the genre in a monthly format, for fair and equitable representation of true trends.”
In a statement, the ministry had said, “In the spirit of the TRP committee report and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI’s) recommendation dated 28.04.2020, M/s Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has undertaken revision in its processes, protocols, oversight mechanism and initiated changes in governance structure etc. The reconstitution of the board and the technical committee to allow for the induction of independent members have also been initiated by BARC. A permanent oversight committee has also been formed. The access protocols for data have been revamped and tightened.”
News Broadcasters Federation is one of the two rival organisations of TV news networks in India, which was created on the initiative of Arnab Goswami, the current board president of the group. The other organisation is News Broadcasters Association, which comprises NDTV, News18, Times Network, TV Today, Zee News, India TV, ABP and some others, and is currently chaired by Rajat Sharma. While NBA has most national news networks, NBF is much larger in terms of the number of members as it has a large number of regional channels as members, and currently has over 50 members.
