The News Broadcasters’ Federation (NBF), in a letter to the Minister for Information & Broadcasting Anurag Thakur, has raised an alarm that weekly ratings for TV news channels could be impeded, which could be detrimental for the genre.

“It has come to our collective attention that there is a group of broadcasters with proven monopolistic interests, who are making attempts to impede the ongoing transparent process of publishing weekly ratings for the news genre.

“We write to you, with severe concern, to request that there is no disruption in the publishing of ratings for the news genre as disseminated by the rating agency BARC (India). News ratings are the lifeline of honest news organisations whose existence and sustenance are measured and delivered based on the performance of their weekly ratings by their viewers across India,” the NBF letter said.

Highlighting the importance of the weekly audience data made public by Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India, NBF said news broadcasters must have a “right to earn their revenues through the honest competitive contest within the genre”, which is decided “solely on the ratings published by BARC every week”.

“Stoppage of BARC ratings only for the news genre would impact our operations which, in turn, will have a cascading impact on the livelihoods of the employees part of our channels,” NBF pointed out, adding the ratings were the only “currency for advertisers to allocate their advertising budget to various genres (GEC, news, music etc.) and channels”.

“If ratings of only news genres are stopped, and ratings of 95 percent of the TV universe comprising of all other genres are released, their advertisers’ trust and preference for news genres, quite naturally will take a hit,” NBF argued.

The letter also alleged that “unlike GEC(s), with deep pockets and mostly owned by foreign entities, news channels are mostly free to air, and the only source of revenue is advertising”.

“We humbly seek your intervention to ensure that ratings, which is the only determinant of advertising and revenue, of our industry is not disrupted and our genre is not singularly acted against,” NBF appealed to the Minister.