TV9 Network walks out of NBDA

Leading news network of India, TV9 Network, enjoying a leadership rating status, has decided to quit News Broadcasters & Digital Association (NBDA) over moves by the industry body to further delay the resumption of news ratings in the country.

In an open letter addressed to the NBDA Board, TV9 Network CEO, Barun Das, expressed his dismay over attempts, yet again, by NBDA to raise doubts over BARC data while aiming to further delay the data release for the news genre.

The NBDA issued a press release yesterday demanding that “before releasing the ratings make systems more transparent, robust and reliable without any manual intervention.”

Das, in his letter to NBDA, said, “We, TV9 network, a full member of NBDA , do not subscribe to this view of NBDA Board. This seems to be a view point of a select members of NBDA and certainly not that of entire NBDA.”

The NBDA press release was issued after the Information & Broadcasting (I&B) ministry announced its decision to immediately resume news ratings.

The ministry’s decision came at the back of sustained efforts of several news channels, working with various stakeholders - after suffering revenue and credibility loss for more than 1 year.

Putting his decision to withdraw from NBDA in context, TV9 Network CEO Das said, “As a full member of NBDA, we have tried to reason with NBDA repeatedly but to no avail. I am not sure whether NBDA actually wants the ratings to resume at all. The latest NBDA communication only makes a bad situation for the News Industry worse.”

Arguing in favour of his immediate withdrawal, Das said " I have been trying to reason with NBDA repeatedly but to no avail. On the contrary, NBDA has been expressing views in public, on the most critical issue pertaining to news genre, which I am complete in disagreement with. Therefore, I am left with no option but to withdraw from NBDA with immediate effect.”