What is TRP. TRP controversy in India #Republictv vs #Indiatoday

What is a TRP?

1. Anyone watching television for more than a minute is considered a viewer.

2. The TRP or Target Rating Point is the metric used by the marketing and advertising agencies to evaluate this viewership.

Who records TRP in India? 

1. The TRP is recorded by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) using Bar-O-Meters that are installed in televisions in selected households.

2. The BARC has installed these meters in 44,000 households across the country till date.

How is the TRP calculated? 

1. Audio watermarks are embedded in video content prior to broadcast.

2. These watermarks are not audible to the human ear, but can easily be detected and decoded using dedicated hardware and software.

3.  Viewing details and the watermarks are recorded by the Bar-O-Meters.

How are the households selected?

1. A large-scale face-to-face survey of a sample of approximately 3 lakh households from the target population is done annually.

2. Out of these, the households that will have Bar-O-Meters are selected by a random process called the Recruitment Sample.

3. Viewing behaviour of panel homes is reported to BARC India daily that verifies it physically or telephonically.

4. BARC India also involves a separate vigilance agency to check on outliers that it considers highly suspicious.

5. The panel homes selected are rotated annually as per the guidelines of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

Where are the loopholes? 

1. The panel homes selected are intruded into to manipulate the viewership.

2. As the process is self regulating, there is no government control over it.