Government sets up committee to review guidelines on Television Rating agencies

The Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has set up a committee to review guidelines on Television Rating agencies in India. The committee will be chaired by Prasar Bharti CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati.

The committee will be required to revisit the existing Television Rating guidelines to further strengthen the procedures to make them more credible and transparent.

The parliamentary panel on information technology-led by Shashi Tharoor had unanimously agreed last month that the current system of measuring audience estimates through Television Rating Points (TRPs) is flawed and its technology is outdated.

Committee Composition

Chairman- Shashi Shekhar Vempati, Prasar Bharti CEO

Committee Members

1. Dr Shalabh, Statistics Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics in IIT Kanpur.

2. Dr Rajkumar Upadhyay, Executive Director of C-DOT 

3. Pulak Ghosh, Professor of Decision Sciences Centre for Public Policy. 

Besides this, the Committee may invite any expert as a special invitee.

Why do we need the committee?

The I&B Ministry said in an order that the present guidelines on Television Rating agencies in India were notified after detailed deliberations by the Parliamentary Committee AND Committee on Television Rating Points constituted by the Ministry and recommendations from Telecom Regulatory Authority.

However, there is currently a need to have a fresh look at the guidelines keeping in view the recent recommendations from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), technological advancements and interventions to address the system.

Key Details 

• The newly constituted committee will carry out an appraisal of the existing guidelines system and examine TRAI recommendations notified from time to time.

• The committee will also revisit the overall industry scenario, addressing the needs of the stakeholders and make recommendations for a credible, robust, transparent and accountable rating system through changes, if required, in the existing guidelines.

• The Committee will be required to submit its report to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry within the next two months.