Measuring Television Viewership

What is the issue?

• Information and Broadcasting Ministry has asked TRAI for installing a chip in the new Set-Top-Boxes to measure viewership.
• It is essential in this backdrop to look at how viewership is measured currently and what difference could chips make.

What is I&B Ministry's proposal?

• I&B Ministry recently sent a letter to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
• This was regarding new licences for Direct-To-Home service providers.
• The Ministry said it was proposed to ask DTH operators to install a chip in the new Set-Top-Boxes.
• The chip could give data about channels watched and their duration.

What was TRAI's response?

• TRAI has said that installing a chip was not part of the initial reference from the Ministry.
• So, it was not discussed for the recommendations for new DTH licences that it gave in 2014.
• It was on these recommendations that the Ministry had asked TRAI further questions.
• A “new issue” could not be part of a “back reference”.
• If the Ministry desires the regulator’s recommendation on it, it must ask "officially".
• However, the Ministry has not sent such a request yet.

How is television viewership measured currently?

• The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) is an industry body.
• It is jointly owned by advertisers, ad agencies, and broadcasting companies.
• They are represented by Indian Society of Advertisers, Indian Broadcasting Foundation and Advertising Agencies Association of India.
• It measures television viewership in the country, using television rating points, or TRPs.

How does it work?

• BARC has installed “BAR-O-meters” in around 30,000 empanelled households across the country.
• These households are classified into 12 categories.
• This is under the New Consumer Classification System (NCCS), the so-called “new SEC” that was adopted by BARC in 2015.
• The classification is based on the education level of the main wage earner and the ownership of consumer durables.
• While watching a show, the members of the household register their presence by pressing their viewer ID button.
• It thus captures the duration for which the channel was watched and by whom.
• It also provides data on viewership habits across age and socio-economic groups.
• This data is one of the most important considerations for advertisers and agencies.
• It influences their choice of channel to advertise their products.

What is the need for a chip-based survey?

• The panel used to capture TRPs should be representative of the country’s population.
• Also, the methodology must be economically viable for the industry.
• But there are some concerns in regard to all these:
• BARC - There are concerns that BARC was underreporting viewership numbers for Doordarshan.
• Thus there was apprehension that the data produced by BARC was not accurate.
• Cost - This could impact the advertising costs of the government.
• As, some channels with low viewership could charge more for advertisements.
• Monopoly - BARC was a “monopoly”.
• It did not disclose its methodology in sufficient detail.

How effective could chips be?

• A basic chip passively records TV viewership data of households that have set-top boxes.
• It could only capture the duration of viewership for each channel.
• But still it would be able to potentially capture this data for a much larger TV-watching population.
• As per the Ministry, installing chip to Set-Top-Boxes could ensure a more “accurate assessment of viewers”.
• This can help advertisers and advertising agencies make more effective choices.

What are the concerns?

• Groups - No information about the TV-watching habits of different age groups will be captured.
• Also, the data could not reflect viewership patterns in terms of different socio-economic groups.
• Quality - Data from a basic chip could be quantitatively richer, but not necessarily qualitatively better.
• Notably, the latter is essential for the advertising industry and, therefore, the broadcasting industry.
• If the chip is to capture qualitative data as well, each set-top box will have to be equipped with a unique identifier.
• This could naturally lead to concerns over privacy.
• Coverage - The proposal is only for set-top boxes of DTH customers.
• Whereas TRAI recommends that TRP measurements should be platform-agnostic.
• It means that it should reflect the viewership of cable TV and IPTV, etc., as well.

Source: Indian Express