Explained | Why TRPs matter to news channels and other questions answered

It is the battle for eyeballs—the more viewers you have, the higher will be advertisement rates. This is the game on which the survival of a television channel and a wider network hinges on.

The controversy over the alleged manipulation of television rating points, or TRPs as we know them, by some news channels points to malice that has plagued the broadcast industry for a while.

TRPs, an important metric for advertisers, reflect the popularity of a channel. In the race to top the charts, news channels have often pointed fingers at each other, questioned the ratings and even challenged the process whenever ratings take a beating.

It goes back almost 10 years when most Indian households had TV sets that could receive only up to 85 channels.

The Multi-System Operators(MSOs), who we know as cable network distributors, could make or mar a channel.

A recently launched channel could find itself in the last band–channel numbers 70-80, where fewer viewers were expected to reach as it was way down the order. 

A few weeks later, however, the channel could move in the top band by paying higher carriage fees to the cable network. It was a win-win for both sides—MSOs were making a lot of money by deciding the order of the channels on their networks and the channels, to fend off competition, saw it as a convenient way to get more viewers.

But as the number of channels grew, more ingenious methods came into play. Many channels started paying MSOs to become the landing channel, the one that viewers would see when they switch on the TV. There have been many instances of broadcasters squabbling among themselves over this “tactic”.

The channels have always tried to look at new ways to game the system.

 Also Read | Parliamentary panel on IT to take up TRP issue: Sources

 Why is TRP making news?

The rating system, run by the television monitoring agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), was set up in 2010. 

Mumbai Police has accused three channels, which include Arnab Goswami’s Republic TV, of manipulating the ratings data by paying households to keep their television sets tuned to their channels.

“Certain households were paid to keep their television sets on irrespective of whether they were at home or not, even with some English channels for uneducated individuals," police commissioner Param Bir Singh said. 

It has arrested four persons, including owners of Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema channels, and summoned Shiva Subramaniyam Sundaram, the chief financial officer of the Republic TV network. Sundaram requested police not to record his statement as the channel has approached the Supreme Court. The hearing is scheduled within a week.

Also Read | Republic TV's CFO doesn't appear before cops, cites Supreme Court hearing

What is TRP methodology? 

TRPs indicate how many people from various socio-economic categories watched which particular channel for how much time during a particular period.

BARC has installed meters in over 45,000 households and these homes are divided into 12 categories under the New Consumer Classification System.

The households are selected by an external agency hired by BARC, in this case, Hansa Research. According to the Mumbai Police, the manipulation happened at the data collection stage and Hansa has also released a statement saying it has filed an FIR against a former employee.

What do other countries do?

In the UK, the Broadcasters' Audience Research Board (BARB) tracks television ratings and has two sources of data–people-based data: the BARB panel (carefully recruited households) and device-based census data for online TV viewing. 

According to BARB, device-based data alone has some limitations. It also uses an additional technique in homes that subscribe to Sky where it can access service information codes within the network’s set-top boxes.