Broadcast Audience Research Council
(BARC)
Description
Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC): Discovering What People in India Tune Into
BARC India stands for the Broadcast Audience Research Council. It is the official people in charge of keeping track of how many people watch TV in a country like India. Over a billion people and thousands of TV channels — who knows what people are watching out there? BARC is there to help broadcasters, advertisers, and creators of content learn about how people act and what they like, which is most of how the media industry changes.
Formation and Stakeholders
BARC India was launched in 2010 as a joint industry body. Major shareholders in the TV ecosystem are: “Ad– represented by Indian Society of Advertisers “Broadcaster – represented by Indian Broadcasting Foundation and Digital Broadcast Foundation “Advertising Agency Association of India represents Advertising agencies The major objective is to ascertain what individuals watch on television and to provide a transparent and credible determination of television audiences in India.
BARC and TV Ratings
BARC began distributing TV viewership data in 2015; it was soon the de facto yardstick for gauging audiences in the country.
Why is it important to measure an audience?
So basically, BARC collects these details to figure out who watches which show at what time, which is of use:
- To the broadcasters – so that they know which shows are clicking and which are not;
- Advertisers need to place their advertisements where they will be most effective.
- Content producers can observe what content is favored and in demand.
- Researcher’s government can learn how media impacts society
Without such information, we would simply be guessing about programming, scheduling, and advertising
BARC working?
Technology is used by BARC to capture the television audience. For this, ‘peoplemeters’ are installed in some Indian homes which constitute the sample. These gadgets keep a record of which channels people in the household are watching and then report this information to the main system of BARC.
This is how it is done:
- BARC has a sampling of putting peoplemeters in thousands of homes all across the world speaking different languages, belonging to different economic backgrounds, and of different ages.
- Data Collection: It keeps a record of how much TV is being watched, what channel, and by whom.
- Data Processing: The raw data is cleaned, looked at, and turned into audience measurements.
BARC shares rating reports every week with the channels and therefore with the advertising agencies. Such ratings are referred to as TV Rating Points (TRPs).
It strives to represent data on television viewership in an unbiased and scientific fashion from all over the nation.
What is TRP?
A Television Rating Point (TRP) is a figure that gives an insight into how many viewers have watched a particular show or channel. The higher the TRP, the more popular is the show.
In simpler terms, if a news channel attracts 5.0 TRP, it means 5% of the total TV viewing audience has been gripped through that channel. TRPs help the channels to know which programs are liked by the viewers and help the advertisers to choose the best time to telecast their advertisement.
Problems and Criticism
Although BARC is considered an authentic source of readership, it has come under certain problems:
- Sample Size: India is a big country and BARC covers thousands of homes, but it might not be completely representative of each group or each area.
- Tampering and Manipulation: Some of the people have gone to the extent of manipulating ratings by paying certain families to watch specific channels, hence lowering the credibility of the data.
- Content Pressure: Some channels may be only interested in numbers that is giving high TRP rather than quality or educational content.