Trai suggests new audience measurement system as part of broadcasting policy

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has recommended a new audience measurement system for the television industry for better monetisation of content, a top official said.

In its consultation paper for the new Broadcast policy, Trai Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti said that the audience measurement system currently works with a small sample.

"The audience measurement system was devised long back and a very small sample is taken to assess the audience. Now, with the advancement in technology, there is an opportunity to review the structure of audience measurement so that we have more scientific data and this can be used by the advertisers and the the broadcasters for proper monetising of the content that they are creating and broadcasting," he said at the FICCI Frames event held in Mumbai on March 6.

The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India owns a television audience measurement system which measures TV viewing habits of 210 million households in the country, using over 50,000 sample panel homes.

For the new broadcasting policy, Trai will come out with a consultation paper in the next few days. "After the consultation paper is out, the industry will be requested to comment on that with their detailed suggestions and all those suggestions will be out in the public domain and then the industry and the stakeholders, including consumers, will be requested to give their comments and once that process is over we will have open discussion," said Lahoti said in a Moneycontrol query.

For the new broadcasting policy, the government had asked the sector regulator for its recommendations. "For that purpose, we had a pre-consultation with the industry to identify the focus areas. The areas of focus include encouraging production and promotion of local content. India has vast opportunity to produce content not only for the country, but also take it beyond borders," the Trai chief said.

He added that making India a global hub in content creation will be the second area of focus. Trai has also suggested firming up the public service broadcasting as it is very important for a country like India to have a strong public service broadcasting system for dissemination of information, knowledge, education, and entertainment so that the public service broadcasting delivers quality content and it is widely disseminated.

The next thing that Trai will be doing is to ensure growth in all the various multiple verticals of media and entertainment and also make the regulatory climate, policy environment more business friendly so that the sector which is very dynamic, grows.

TRAI is also looking at ways to combat piracy. "We are also looking at an effective grievance redressal system. And in the age that we are today, sustainable development is another aspect that we will be needing. We will also be focusing on the role of broadcasting in case of disasters."

The Rs 2.32-lakh-crore ($27.9-billion) Indian media and entertainment sector is estimated to reach Rs 3.08 lakh crore by 2026. "At Trai, our job is to facilitate this growth. We have to create an environment where the industry functions in a transparent manner, there is a level playing field for all the shareholders. At the same time, we have to promote innovation and new investments in the industry. This is what would be the approach of Trai," Lahoti said.

He added that for such a dynamic industry, the government and the regulators are focusing on the ease of doing business. "For this purpose, I had given two recommendations in detail to the government and the ministry of information and broadcasting is already acting on those recommendations. The ministry has augmented the Broadcasting Service Portal with the objective of making all the submissions, approvals compliances, online into the portal where the industry can approach the government for various compliances," the Trai chairman added.