In a move with far reaching implications for advertisers and broadcast television, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Tuesday submitted its recommendations which seek to restructure and reform Broadcast Audience Research Council India (BARC) for overhauling the existing television audience measurement and ratings systems.

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TRAI had, suo-moto, introduced a consultation paper on a review of the TV ratings system in December of 2018, after the stakeholders had red flagged concerns of neutrality and reliability of BARC TV Ratings. BARC commenced operations in 2015, and since then has been exclusively responsible for providing TV ratings.

After over 15 months of consultation, across the stakeholders, TRAI concluded on the need for a total rejig. TRAI has submitted that Structural reforms are required in the Governance structure of BARC to mitigate the potential risk of conflict of interest, improve credibility, and bring transparency and instill confidence. TRAI has submitted a detailed list of 28 recommendations.

Amongst the major changes sought, TRAI has pushed for an overhaul of the composition of the board of BARC. TRAI has suggested that at least 50% of the board should comprise of independent members. TRAI has submitted that the independement members should include one member as measurement technology expert, one statistician of “national repute” from among “top institutions” of the country and two representatives from either the Govt or TRAI. Further, TRAI has recommended that the term of board members should be 2 years.

To allow for more balance, TRAI has also pushed for equal representation and equal voting rights to all the three industry associations – Indian Broadcasting Federation (IBF), Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) and Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI). Equal rights, as per TRAI, should be allowed irrespective of their equity holding.

TRAI has also suggested that Chairmanship of the Board should be rotated among the three industry associations, every two years.

TRAI has also advised a cooling period of 4 years for nominees of the industry associations, in case of consecutive terms.

TRAI has recommended an increase in the number of members of the technical committee to 5, with the addition of two external technical experts.

TRAI has also pushed for more active participation of advertisers to ensure greater transparency, accuracy, credibility and neutrality.

Finally, the regulator has also sought to introduce annual audits of BARC by an independent third party.