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Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has constituted a committee to review “Guidelines on Television Rating Agencies in India” notified by the Ministry in 2014.

Why?

The committee has been constituted to study different aspects of the television rating system in India as they have evolved over a period of time.

What will be done?

• The Committee shall carry out an appraisal of the existing system; examine TRAI recommendations notified from time to time, overall industry scenario and addressing the needs of the stakeholders and make recommendations for robust, transparent and accountable rating system through changes, if any, in the existing guidelines.
• The committee will be required to revisit the existing Television Rating guidelines to further strengthen the procedures to make them more credible and transparent
• The Committee can invite any expert as a special invitee.
• The Committee will submit its report to the Minister for Information & Broadcasting within two months.

Present Guidelines

Issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) on Television Rating Agencies in India were notified after detailed deliberations by the Parliamentary Committee, Committee on Television Rating Points (TRP) constituted by the MIB and recommendations of Telecom Regulatory Authority, etc.

TRP and its calculation

TRP stands for Television Rating Point. It is a tool that indicates the popularity of a television program. It is used to judge which television program is viewed most. This gives an index of the choice of the people and shows the popularity of the particular program. A program with higher TRP indicates that the program is viewed by a large number of viewers. Its data is very useful for the advertisers because, they place their advertisements during the programs with higher TRPs.

• For calculation purpose, a device is attached to the TV set in a few thousand viewer’s houses for judging purposes.
• These numbers are treated as sample from the overall TV owners in different geographical and demographical sectors.
• This device is called People’s Meter.
• It records the time and the programme that a viewer watches on a particular day.
• Then average is calculated for a 30 day period and this gives the viewership of a particular channel.