New Delhi: The four member committee appointed by the government in November 2020 to review the ‘television guide guidelines in India have recommended that it must be mandatory to universalize the collection of viewers information using the’ Data Return Line ‘technology (RPD).
Led by Prasar Chief Executive Bharati Shashi Shekhar Vempati, the committee was appointed in the background of the ‘trp scam’ which was excavated by Mumbai police in October 2020, which points to the manipulation of “fraud” from television ranking points (trs) with three channels – Republic TV, Fact Marathi and Box Cinema.
The report, which was shared with the Indian Broadcast Audience Research Board (Barc India) and all broadcasting associations on Monday, admitted that there had been extensive consensus among most stakeholders to improve RPD capabilities.
Observing that the review of television ranking systems in India was carried out during the period “major changes in the media sector” and at the points “when the integrity of the ranking system has been under critical public supervision”, the committee recommends increasing competitiveness.
In the TV ranking room, places the place “special regulation mechanism”, and increases the base for TV rankings in India in line with global benchmarks.
“As a first step, the committee recommends that the provisions for RPD are carried out with the mandatory ability of all set top boxes (STB) described by the distributor platform operator so that the RPD is the ability everywhere equivalent to encryption, conditional access and other STB level capabilities,” The report said.
It was added, “Next, all collection of data viewers by the DPO must be governed by the privacy norms prescribed by the Government / Regulator.
In addition, sales or sharing viewers based on DPOs must be arranged by guidelines for TV ranking systems.” Recommend to Barc Data Integration RPD which exists within six months, the panel also increases to prepare a shared industrial working group consisting of stakeholders to “determine the norms for the RPD mandate throughout the industry, to codify privacy protection, and to regulate sales, and to regulate sales, and to arrange sales, and to set up / shared RPD data transparently.
“The government can consider temporarily suspending licenses to Barc India after the appropriate amendment guidelines and issuing directions needed to Barc India.
The temporary suspension may be limited to the period to Barc India , “said the report.