NDTV opts out of receiving ratings data for the blackout period

NDTV has decided to opt out of receiving ratings data for the period when BARC was not publishing news channel ratings. It was on October 15, 2020, that BARC India had temporarily paused the reporting of individual channel audience estimates for all news channels. This was done following the massive uproar over TRP manipulation charges. After almost one and a half years, BARC has announced that it will start releasing individual news channel data with effect from Thursday, March 17 2022.

The Augmented Standards entail the reporting of audience estimates for News and Special Interest genre channels on a 4-week rolling average basis, which would be released regularly every week along with the estimates for all other channels. All viewership data will be published on the same YUMI platform that all BARC subscribers use.

In addition to the weekly currency audience estimates that all channels receive, BARC India will also release the previous 13 weeks’ data prior to the week of resumption of data under the Augmented Data Reporting Standards.

However, this past rolled data will not be made available for those channels that choose to opt-out of receiving this data. Data for all the channels that “opt-out” would be clubbed under the ‘Other Channels’ category, in order to ensure that estimates for Total TV or Total News remain unchanged from previously released data.

As per media reports, NDTV hit out at the manipulation and buying of TRPs, which has played a huge role in what some networks choose as their news content.

NDTV maintained that it has been among the earliest and biggest proponents to clean up the ratings system. The group alleged that the ratings system misled the advertisers and their agencies who would misallocate money on the basis of the gross misrepresentation of each news channel’s market share.

The opt-out choice for the past 13 weeks’ data is a one-time choice that cannot be changed thereafter. Once the data is published (or not), as per the choice of the broadcaster, BARC will not be in a position to change the opt-out status at a later date. Those subscribers who choose to opt-out and not have their past data released, will also need to pay their subscription fees for the period from Week 40, 2020.

Last date for subscribers to convey their decision to opt-out to BARC India was February 17, 2022.