BARC has set a target of installing 65,000 bar-o-meters which are used to collect TV viewership data, and is adding new meters every month to achieve its target, one of the sources said.
The council had installed 55,000 bar-o-meters as of December 2022, in accordance with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting’s (MIB) policy guidelines for TV rating agencies in India.
The increase in meter count comes amid calls from various sections of the industry to increase the BARC panel size to capture precise TV viewership data from India’s urban and rural areas.
Meterology Data, in which BARC owns 51% and TAM Media owns the remaining 49%, deploys and maintains the bar-o-meters. It also has 2500 OOH meters to collect representative data from India’s urban and rural areas.
The bar-o-meters are used to collect real-time data beamed through GSM networks, which are supported by a network of field personnel, electronic equipment, and a strong IT backbone.BARC is promoted by the Indian Broadcasting and Digital Foundation (IBDF), the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA), and the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI).The IBDF holds a 60% stake in BARC, with the ISA and AAAI owning 20% each. BARC’s TV viewership data, which is based on a sample survey, is used as a currency for trading TV advertising worth Rs 40,000 crore annually.
