BARC releases policy for sharing viewership data of watermarked channels

BARC India has come out with its policy for sharing viewership data of watermarked channels prior to the public release of data via BMW software of the said channel.

According to the policy, the data will be released at a weekly level only for a maximum period of three weeks. This data will be shared at no additional charge but as per the following parameters/ cuts:

• This will be weekly viewership data (Rat% & Impression 000s), reach data (Reach % and Cov %) and time spent data (ATS-Viewer). The data will be for the entire week, daywise data shall not be provided. No data to be provided beyond three weeks.
• Data to be provided at an All India and State Level only.
• The TG for the data will be the entire universe (All 4+).

In case further data cuts are required, they will be chargeable at a rate of Rs 1 lakh per additional cut (per week).

The most granular cut possible is at a State-Urban or State-Rural level (for example, Maharashtra Urban or Andhra Pradesh Rural, and so on. So a more granular cut like Maharashtra 10-75 lakh or Hyderabad is not possible).

The maximum period of data that can be provided is for a total of eight weeks (three weeks free and five weeks paid).

In low viewership genres, the viewership data that will be shared will have a high Relative Error. In case even finer cuts are required, then they will have an even higher relative error and BARC has advised caution with using such data.