Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has increased the size of panel homes from about 30,000 in 2017 to 55,000 in December 2022, informed the Minister of Information and Broadcasting.
The number of panel meters installed in audience homes plays a crucial role in improving the accuracy of TV viewership data. India's largest viewership data collection agency is reportedly planning to increase the installed meter count to around 65,000 over the next three years.
The data was released by the Information & Broadcasting ministry in response to a query whether viewership data for news genre released by BARC was suspended, if yes, has the union government implemented any new steps to collect viewership data by the BARC.
The Ministry in its response said that BARC data for news was not suspended and the agency continued to report viewership data for news on a weekly basis.
BARC had, in 2020, stopped reporting viewership data for TV news channels after allegations were leveled against channels such as Republic TV about manipulation of the data collection mechanism.
The Bar-o-meter is a device installed on the televisions of audiences to examine what they are watching at any given time. The data is measured to calculate TRP. BARC adheres to the Minister of Information and Broadcasting and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) when calculating TRPs.