BARC can no longer work with only a small group of channels in Delhi: NBF

The News Broadcasters Federation (NBF) has written to BARC CEO Nakul Chopra again, its third letter since September2021, reiterating its demand for resumption of TV ratings for the News genre, which have been suspended for almost a year now following the rating manipulation scam last year.

Nakul Chopra had responded to the previous letter of NBF, wherein he had stated that BARC’s decisions were steered entirely by the guidance and feedback from the industry. He had also stated that BARC had been using the additional time to extensively test the solution to have a foolproof measuring mechanism in place. He further said that BARC’s Measurement Science team, along with the Tech-Comm, were confident that this solution addressed the key issues.

What are the content trends shaping OTT ecosystem? Find out at SCREENXX 2021. Register Now!Register Now!

Also read:

NBF writes to Nakul Chopra, chalks out 4-point charter of demands

NBF demands BARC to release it's ratings for news genre on urgent basis

Reacting to Chopra’s response, the NBF posed two fundamental questions:

Who specifically forced BARC to pause the viewership reports for News Channels?
Why were the ratings stopped only for the news genre, which constitutes just 12% of the total television viewership?

In its letter to BARC, which Adgully has access to, NBF stated, “BARC must also deeply introspect on how it can no longer work with ONLY a small group of channels in Delhi who falsely claim to be representatives of the Indian news ecosystem and disregard the strong and diverse voice of broadcasters across India. BARC should and must immediately reflect on whether it has allowed itself to be guided by such a group and in that done the biggest disservice to the news broadcast industry as a whole.”

While urging that BARC be fair with the industry and not to single out the news genre, NBF once again reiterated its demand for resumption of TV ratings of the news genre at the earliest.