I&B min snubs Airtel for selling viewership data
NEW DELHI: Telecom service provider Bharti Airtel has been warned by the information and broadcasting ministry for allegedly selling viewership data in violation of government guidelines, even as the company denied that it was doing so. .
“It has been inter-alia alleged that M/s Airtel is selling viewership data collected through RPD (return path data) from its Airtel Xstream subscribers,” the ministry said in a letter to the company on March 21. HT has reviewed a copy.
The commercial use of viewership data violates government rules on TV ratings framed by the ministry’s broadcasting department, the letter said.
Airtel has denied the allegations. “Airtel does not share any user data, nor does it offer any rating services to broadcasters,” a company spokesperson said on April 23.
“Consistent with standard industry norms, including the OTT (over the top) segment, Airtel is merely offering anonymised and aggregated insights from households using its Airtel Xstream Android TV Box.”
This does not qualify as TV ratings, the telecom firm added. “We believe we are fully compliant with all regulations and will be happy to provide further details to the ministry, if required,” its spokesperson said.
Airtel has submitted a detailed note on the queries raised by the ministry. The referenced article by the ministry was “highly misconceived and unfounded,” the service provider said in its April 8 note reviewed by HT. A line about was article is being referred to.
“It (the article) does not set out the factual position correctly and seems to be based on an incorrect understanding of facts,” Airtel said in its response.
After a yearlong impasse, the ministry in January asked the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) to resume releasing television rating points (TRPS) for news channels.
It directed BARC to release with immediate effect and also to release the last three months data for the news genre in a monthly format for “fair and equitable representation” of true trends, MIB said in a statement in January this year.
TV news channel TRPS were suspended after a scandal alleging manipulation of ratings emerged in October 2020. Mumbai Police arrested at least five people over the alleged scam. Police also questioned executives of Arnab Goswami-led Republic Media Group in the case. Republic Media denied any wrongdoing.
As the controversy grew, BARC announced a three-month long suspension of weekly ratings of news channels across languages last year.
The council said it would review and augment current standards of measurement to improve on “statistical robustness”, as the government set up a four-member panel to look into the allegations and submit its report within two months.
BARC has since introduced a series of structural changes to enable a better mechanism to track the data, according to the organisation.*