The News Broadcasters & Digital Association (NBDA) and the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India are working together to quickly resolve the issue of suspended audience data of TV news channels, a top functionary of NBDA has said.

“NBDA and BARC (India) working very actively together to resolve this issue (of the now-suspended audience data for TV news channels) and come (out) with the data as soon as possible,” NBDF Vice-President and ABP Network CEO Avinash Pandey said at the CII Big Picture Summit.

Pandey made these comments last week while participating in a session themed “How does India watch TV?” where the issue of audience measurement data (TRPs as known popularly) was brought up by the moderator who wanted to explore how news channels create content vis-à-vis consumer preferences, especially when audience measurement figures for TV news channels remain suspended in India.

According to Pandey, to run a business like a TV news channel, one needed data and there was no point kidding oneself that news channels can do without them.

“What we also need is the data should be dependable,” he explained, adding, “There are fundamental issues in data management in this country (and) we have to accept it.”

Pointing out that while some companies invest heavily in news gathering to come up with good journalism, he lamented that unfortunately “stories on bhoot-pret” (news reports on superstition, etc.) bring in the ratings and eyeballs, which, in turn, influence advertising on a channel.

He was quite categorical that there were problems in the way the news business, especially on TV, was structured in the country. “We are 95 percent dependent on advertising…and advertising comes from eyeballs,” Pandey said.

When asked shouldn’t news business actively aspire for a pay model, which can neutralize over-dependence on advertising, Pandey, while fundamentally agreeing with the premise of pay model vis-à-vis good journalism, said that for that to happen the leader in the category has to lead the way by putting content behind a paywall.

BARC India, which measures what India watches, suspended audience measurement for TV news channels late 2020 for three months amidst allegations of manipulations, a move that was then welcomed by the News Broadcasters Association as NBDA was then known as.

Subsequently, the Indian government set up an expert committee, under the chairmanship of Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi S. Vempati, to study the whole audience measurement environment and come up with suggestions for improvement. The report was submitted to the government earlier this year, but made public and shared with industry organisations for comments only recently.

The audience data remains suspended, in the meanwhile, though some news organisations have been now vocally calling for a resumption as, they said, absence of any data was hurting the business.

The government-appointed committee, while batting for multiple TV audience measurement agencies in the country, has suggested that digital medium too should be measured in a hybrid model and that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting should explore setting up of a ratings agency regulator on the lines of the Media Ratings Council of the United States.

“The committee finds that the current guidelines already provide for multiple rating(s) agencies,” the report pointed out, adding, “…the committee recommends the creation of a specialized media ratings regulator, drawing on the experiences of SEBI (the Indian stock markets regulator) in regulating credit rating agencies and of the experience of the Media Ratings Council in the United States.”