Television ratings agency Broadcast Audience Research Council’s (BARC) decision to not release TV ratings data for news channels could lead to contempt of court charges against the ratings body leadership, said news broadcasters’ association News Broadcasters Federation.
According to the association, BARC continues to stall the release to TV ratings data for the news genre, even after the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) directive on January 12 to release the data “immediately”.
This according to R Jai Krishna, Secretary-General, NBF, is contrary to BARC’s commitment to the Bombay High Court. In the court, the ratings agency said it will restore news channel makers’ access to the weekly channel data “as and when” and if permitted by the government.
The owner of the channel NewsX, Information TV Private Limited dragged the rating agency to court for not releasing TV ratings data for the news genre, in July.
BARC claimed it suspended the ratings under directive of the MIB, which wanted to study the deficiencies in the TRP system.
According to Krishna, BARC’s decision to not implement the MIB order to release the news rating data, even after three weeks, contradicts their statement to the court, thereby the court could hold them in contempt. “BARC is capable of releasing the data sooner,” said Krishna.
Krishna also believes that BARC could get its licence as a ratings agency cancelled for not listening to the MIB order.
BusinessLine reached out to BARC for comments but the agency did not respond.
Free to air news channels and the rating agency have been waging a war over rating data, as certain broadcasters stall access to the data, which is very integral for negotiating ad-cents. NBF, which is an association for free to air channels says that its members in absence of TV ratings were struggling to provide data to advertisers in absence of a metric system.