Television Rating Point

Television Rating Point

According to TOI, june8, 2003 Television Rating Point ( TRP) is a tool provided to judge which programmes are viewed the most. This gives us an index of the choice of the people and also the popularity of a particular channel. For calculation purpose, a device is attached to the TV set in a few thousand viewers' houses for judging purpose. These numbers are treated as sample from the overall TV owners in different geographical and demographic sectors. The device is called as People's Meter. It records the time and the programme that a viewer watches on a particular day. Then, the average is taken for a 30-day period which gives the viewership status for a particular channel.

What is TRP and how is it computed?

A television programme or a commercial sent over the air, on a cable system, or direct from a satellite is available for viewing by millions of viewers. How does one know how many of those millions are actually viewing a particular programme? Unlike a newspaper or a magazine, where the publisher can count how many copies are sold, there is no direct way to know exactly how many people are watching any given programme. Hence, indirect measuring techniques based on the statistical sampling theory, called Television Audience Measurement (TAM), are used.
Technically speaking, TAM is a specialised branch of media research, dedicated to quantifying and qualifying detailed TV audience information. In India, TAM is commonly referred to as TRP or TV Ratings Points. Generally, when used for the broadcast medium, a rating point equals 1%of the given population.

Why do we need these ratings?

With the hundreds of crores of rupees spent annually on TV programmes and commercials, reliable TV audience information is required to evaluate and maximise the effectiveness of this investment. This has led to the ever-increasing desire by broadcasters, advertisers and advertising agencies to have accurate, consistent and detailed information about TV audiences. These ratings, if reliable and valid, become `common currency' for the market's commercial airtime. Media planners and buyers evaluate the alternative programmes offered to best achieve their advertising goals, broadcasters evaluate programmes or a station’s popularity and how much to charge advertisers for commercials during a programme or on a given channel. In those cases where the channels are funded wholly or partly by public licence, they provide accountability.

How is viewership measured?

There are many ways to measure the audiences. One is through random telephone calls (if teledensity is satisfactory). Another is by using TV diaries, booklets in which samples of viewers record their television viewing during a measurement week. However, with the increasing numbers of channels, multiple broadcasting platforms and increased numbers of TV sets and remote controls per family, electronic gadgets called people meters are used to measure audiences. The people meter, about the size of a paperback book, is placed on each TV set in the sample home. The box has buttons, and lights are assigned to each person who lives in the household (with additional buttons for guests). Each meter is capable of accurately monitoring every second, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, what is being viewed on each TV set and by whom. The meter stores this data. The data is then periodically transmitted by means of the family's telephone line, or a dedicated cellular telephone line to a central computer for analysis. In actual practice, all the three methods are used in combination, for increasing the accuracy and for crosschecking.

The world's first people meter was installed in 1976 in 500 homes in Italy by LCM Graman, an Italian market research company. Today, AC Nielsen, AGB Group and Gallup are the three leading TAM agencies. Most of the television markets in the world have a single TAM rating. However, India till recently had two - one called TAM done by AC Nielsen and other INTAM reported by ORG-MARG. However by the end of this year, TAM and INTAM will be merged to form a consolidated industry standard.

How reliable are TRP ratings?

As with any sampling, TRP ratings could be inaccurate due to sampling errors like inadequate coverage of the TV owning population. In India, for example, TAM ratings are based on people meters installed in only 16 top cities in nine states. Also, the panel households exclude lower middle and top income bracket households, which are keen watchers of niche English channels. Then the whole system is based on the list of metered households being confidential so that their viewing habit is not unduly influenced.

What is TRP rating? Who is controlling, how they guess the people popularity channel?

Television Rating Points - TRP is the criterion that indicates the popularity of a channel or programme and this data is very useful for the advertisers
Presently, INTAM (Indian Television Audience Measurement) is the only electronic rating agency functioning in India. INTAM uses two methodologies for calculating TRP. First is frequency monitoring, in which 'people meters' are installed in sample homes and these electronic gadgets continuously record data about the channel watched by the family members. 'People meter' is a costly equipment, which is imported from abroad. It reads the frequencies of channels, which are later, decoded into the name of the channels and the agency prepares a national data on the basis of its sample homes readings. But there is a drawback in the technique, as cable operators frequently change the frequencies of the different channels before sending signals to the homes. It may be very misleading to read a channel according to a particular frequency even if the down linking frequency is same all over India.

Second technique is more reliable and relatively new to India. In picture matching technique people meter continuously records a small portion of the picture that is being watched on that particular television set. Along with this agency also records all the channels' data in the form of small picture portion. Data collected from the sample homes is later on matched with the main data bank to interpret the channel name. And this way national rating is produced.

Polavaram Politics

Hemant Kumar Pradhan
PG Dept.of Journalism and Mass communication,
Berhampur University

The Orissa government has submitted a writ petition in the Supreme Court on 4th September, 2010 seeking cancellation of clearance granted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests to the controversial Rs 10,000 crore Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh state, which is a matter of worry as it would inundate several parts of the state. In the petition, Orissa government urged the court to cancel the clearance on the ground that it would affect the lives of thousands of people in its state due to massive embankment being constructed by Andhra Pradesh. Even if the matter is under adjudication in the apex court, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) had granted clearance to the project.

The filing of the petition in apex court comes on the heels of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s statement that Orissa would continue to oppose the Polavaram project, owing to its concerns of submergence of tribal villages and forest land.

Polavaram is a major project on the Godavari River named after closet town in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. It is estimated to cost a sum of Rs. 9,265 crores ($4, 590 million). The Polavaram project, which is now proposed to be implemented with certain modification, was conceived more than 50 years back. Its design is outdated and is not fully taken into consideration. The damage is likely to be caused to the ecology, environment, wild life and human habitations and even to the changes that have taken place in the society over the years.

The central part of the Polavaram project is the barrage constructed straight across the Godavari River some 15km north of Rajmundhry in East Godavari district. The barrage will be constructed at a level of 150 feet (47 meters) and raise the water along the river stretch upstream in Godavari and several of its tributaries. The submersion will stretch along the Saberi River, a tributary to Godavari, up to the borders of Orissa and Chhattisgarh.

The centre said that the Polavaram project as conceived is a multipurpose scheme providing irrigation to 4.36 lakhs hectares, water supply to towns and village’s enroute and also would help in generating hydro power with an installed capacity of 960 MW. The project is envisaged for the construction of an earth-cum-rock fill dam. It fulfilled the criteria of being called as a national project and investment clearance was given by the planning commission in Feb 2009.

For this reason, Andhra Pradesh government didn’t want to give up the project and is trying to get the clearance by convincing Congress government in the centre thereby using political pressure.

The state ruling BJD complained that the central government is doing politics and giving importance to their party ruling at the state. It also highlights that the congress high command Mrs.Sonia Gandhi has reportedly assured Andhra Pradesh chief minister, K. Rosaiah to accord national status to the project which presumed that a bulk of the project cost would be borne by the centre. The centre will give 90% of the expenditure. But at that same time, centre gives importance to the Environment, wild life and voice of human habitats of submerged valley.

“A large number of people within Orissa will be affected if Polavaram project is allowed over the Godavari in Andhra Pradesh.” Mr. Naveen Patnaik claimed, adding that a huge chunk of forest land would also be submerged due to the project in the neighbouring state.

“In our petition in the Supreme Court, we have demanded the cancellation of the environment clearance given to the project by the Union Minister of Environment and forest (MoEF) to the Polavaram project. The state government has argued as to how the ministry could give the clearance when a case related to the project is already pending in the apex court. According to the state government estimates, the project was likely to submerge 2119.38 hectares of land in the Naxalite-affected tribal areas of Malkangiri district. The Orissa government has also accused the Central Water Commission (CWC) of not furnishing any details before approving the project.

The frequent problems of failure of embankments are not appreciated by CWC because of dearth of experts in the CWC who have adequate exposure to the field investigations, designs, construction, operation and maintenance of irrigation flood control works. The Bachawat Tribunal insisted that design of the Polavaram dam must be based not only on the interstate agreement of 1978 but also on the agreement of 1980 as far as practicable and it is clearly emphasized that if any changes are to be made in stipulated condition the consent of the other states must be obtained. Since the critical design criteria of Probable Maximum Flood (PMF) has changed from 36 lakhs in 1980 to 50 lakhs causes, there is a need for reformulation of the polavaram Dam in safe Barrages project with the consultation from states like Orissa and Chhattisgarh .

So,it's a right time for central govt. to make its goodwill,image and sustainable effort for their sustenance in the centre and to being a impartial and common people friendly govt., centre should take suitable steps concerning with other states.
So,