Improve TV measurement mechanism before starting new system: NBDA

BARC has to better the current TV viewership measurement mechanism before starting a TV+ digital measurement system, says The News Broadcasters and Digital Association (NBDA).
NBDA also wants the sample size for TV ratings to increase from the current 44,000 so as to make the data much more credible, said the association in its submission last year to the ministry of information and broadcasting. The association has included these points in its annual report for FY22.
The NBDA wanted a solid corporate governance at the BARC’s board. It also pointed out that the Technical and Oversight Committees in BARC must have independent members along with all industry stakeholders.
"Since ‘news’ is a very important genre, NBDA must get representation on the Board to enable it to give critical inputs to BARC on any issues relating to the ratings of news channels," the body stated.
NBDA also raised concerns about the implementation of the RPD (Return Path Data).
According to the association, there should be a pattern recognition for Landing user behaviour and Dual LCN behaviour.
According to the association, BARC has to come up with a system to remove spikes created through unethical practices like Dual LCN, landing page, etc.
NBDA also advocated for an open data ecosystem approach, which enables researches and academics to analyse and validate rating algorithms and raw data.