The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) board on Thursday proposed to its Technical Committee (Tech Comm) “to review and increase current standards” of measuring and reporting niche genre data and to stop publishing weekly individual ratings for all news channels during the period.
This exercise, which covers all Hindi, regional, English news and business news channels, has been taken “to improve their statistical robustness and significantly hamper potential attempts to infiltrate panel households,” said the statement from BARC.
Beginning with the ‘News Genre’, the measure will take effect immediately and the exercise is expected to take 8-12 weeks, including validation and testing under the supervision of Tech Comm.
Punit Goenka, President of BARC India, said: “Given the most recent developments, the Board felt that a pause was needed to allow the industry and the Council to work closely together to review their already strict protocols and increase them further to allow the industry concentrates in collaborating for the growth and the personable competitiveness ”.
Meanwhile, BARC India CEO Sunil Lulla said: “At BARC we take our role in truthfully and faithfully reporting ‘What India watches’ with the utmost sense of responsibility and we work with integrity to ensure that our audience estimates (ratings) stay true to your purpose. In addition to augmenting current protocols and comparing them to global standards, BARC is actively exploring various options to discourage the illegal induction of viewers from its panel and further strengthening its Code of Conduct to address spectator malpractices. “
BARC India is an industry joint venture founded by stakeholder bodies representing broadcasters, advertisers, and advertising and media agencies.
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