New Delhi: Amid growing concern over
monopolisation of TRPs by private agencies, the government
will setting up a committee to look into the issue under its
direct supervision.
The committee, likely to be headed by FICCI secretary
general Amit Mitra, is expected to be constituted soon,
Ministry for Information and Broadcasting officials said
today.
Senior ministry officials say that the committee could
consist of certain government agencies, especially those
involved in statistical research and media evaluation.
Through this committee the ministry could have a direct
involvement in the process of evaluating the television rating
points (TRPs) measurement, they added.
The government`s decision to look into the TRP issue
through a committee, came amid questions raised in Parliament
about how just two private agencies namely aMAP and TAM were
involved in measuring TRPs of TV programmes.
Both the Houses of Parliament had last year sought an
explanation from Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika
Soni on how could these two agencies through their limited
10,000 boxes (used for measuring TRPs) judge which programme
was more popular than the other.
Soni had sought some time from Parliament to look into
the issue and the decision to form a committee is part of the
ministry`s action plan.
The minister had last week said while the committee would
do its work, the ministry was also taking steps to revive the
Broadcasting Audience Research Council (BARC), a mechanism
which had been formed by some broadcasters in 2007 on
recommendation of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)
for measuring TRPs.
-PTI
