BARC India gets registered with MIB

It is now the only registered television audience measurement system in India.

Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), the new television audience measurement service in India, has finally been granted registration for operating as a Television Rating Agency under the policy guidelines for television rating agencies in India by the MIB (Ministry of Information and Broadcasting).

It may be recalled that, in May, MIB had advised BARC to withhold dissemination of viewership ratings until its registration process was over. BARC officials argued that the delay was from MIB's end and that they will continue sharing viewership ratings with subscribers.

It is pertinent to note here that TAM is not registered with MIB. In a statement issued earlier, TAM mentioned that it has been given permission to release data until its case on cross-holding is resolved.

For the record, BARC is a joint industry body set up in 2012 to design, commission, supervise and own India's television audience measurement system. BARC is a joint venture bringing together the three key stakeholders in television audience measurement - broadcasters, advertisers and agencies. Their respective apex bodies, the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) and the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI), represent the three industries in BARC.

BARC started sharing viewership ratings since April 2015. It first started with household data wherein it reported 10,760 HHs (1L+ C&S) and later, since June 2015, BARC is reporting 47,293 individuals.