Trai to Take Appropriate Action on BARC India for Not Publishing Rating and TV Viewership Data

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has warned the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) for not publishing rating and viewership data during the consumer migration to new tariff regime. If BARC India doesn’t publish the data immediately, the Trai will initiate ‘appropriate action,’ for non-compliance of its orders. In the directive issued by Trai, it stated that BARC India should publish the data by February 25, 2019, and if it fails to publish the same, “appropriate action would be initiated,” under various sections of the Trai Act. Since February 1, 2019, BARC India stopped publishing the rating, TV viewership data citing that consumers are facing issues while accessing the channels as the migration is not carried smoothly.

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BARC India Repeatedly Asked by Trai to Publish the Data

“…BARC India has modified its Fair and Permissible Usage Policy in February 14, 2019, even after being repeatedly asked by the authority to not stop publishing of rating data and viewership data on its website during the migration to new regulatory framework until and unless explicitly permitted by the authority and are thus, in contravention of the direction of the authority dated December 21, 2018 and January 14, 2019,” said the Trai directive, also seen by PTI.

BARC India could not be reached for comments, says PTI. Trai rued that BARC India did not comply with its previous instructions despite being repeatedly asked by the authority to publish rating and data of the viewership of different TV channels. The regulator observed that BARC had submitted that disruption caused by the transition to the new regime could prevent consumers from accessing the channels of their choice, thus not giving a fair and true picture of TV consumption in India.