TV rating agency BARC suspends ratings for news channels

Days after Mumbai Police investigations pointing at a possible tampering of Target Rating Point by certain news channels, television rating agency Broadcast Audience Research Council announced the suspension of audience estimates and ratings for news channels for the next three months, while the Parliamentary Panel on Information Technology has suggested that the present method of data collection is outdated and should be replaced with newer technological innovations. This exercise, a statement from BARC said, would cover all Hindi, regional and English news and business news channels with immediate effect. “Starting with the ‘News Genre’, BARC will cease publishing the weekly individual ratings for all news channels during the exercise. Explaining the need for the move, Punit Goenka, chairperson of BARC India Board said, “Given the most recent developments, the BARC Board was of the opinion that a pause was necessitated to enable the industry and BARC to work closely to review its already stringent protocols and further augment them to enable the industry to focus on collaborating for growth and well-natured competitiveness.” The News Broadcasters Association welcomed the decision and called it an important step in the right direction.