MUMBAI: In a U-turn from its earlier stance of not publishing
TV viewership data on its website during the on-ground changes because of the new tariff regime, industry body Broadcast Audience Research Council (
Barc) India on Monday uploaded the data for week 13 (March 23– 29) of 2019.
The move came after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (
Trai) issued a show cause notice to Barc after it failed to comply with Trai’s directive to immediately release viewership data for the past weeks on its website.
“They (Barc) have published viewership data on their website today (April 8). In a mail to us, Barc executive has written that they are happy to confirm that Barc has decided to publish the select weekly data on their website and data for week 13 is up as of today,” Arvind Kumar, advisor, Trai told ET.
ET reported on April 2 that Trai had issued a show cause notice to Barc India after it stopped publishing viewership data on its website from the first week of February, when Trai’s new tariff order for the broadcast sector came into effect and affected on-ground distribution of many
TV channels.
However, a Barc India spokesperson told ET last week that in the wake of the new tariff order transition period and distribution disruptions, there is significant volatility in data, because of which data in this period does not truly reflect viewers’ choice.