Bangladesh’s TV channels are seeking to scrap the “unhealthy” whole rating aspects (TRP) arrangement — a viewership rating provider developed by Bangladesh Satellite tv for pc Company Miniature (BSCL) that measures channels’ repute — which they were compelled to adopt earlier this one year.
The “mistaken TRP” has vastly impacted TV channels’ marketing revenues, as they were pressured to depend totally on the remark-owned BSCL arrangement, in response to channel owners and executives.
BSCL’s technological limitations have resulted in unreliable TRP data, ensuing in advertisers paying much less as a result of wrong viewership reviews, they educated TBS.
In a letter to Files and Broadcasting Adviser Md Nahid Islam in September, the Affiliation of TV Channel Householders (ATCO) requested the resumption of TRP products and services supplied by world market analysis companies worship Kantar and Nielsen.
ATCO Director Navidul Huq educated TBS that Kantar had been providing the provider in Bangladesh for 2 a long time till the authorities halted it correct by the pandemic. Channels have confronted increasing difficulties after coming into BSCL’s TRP ecosystem, as a result of its unhealthy outcomes, which were proven wrong on several cases, at the side of viewership reporting correct by outages.
TBS received a copy of BSCL paperwork apologising for a TV outage on 7 March 2024, which lasted 26 minutes. Other paperwork published that no matter the outage, the TRP provider crew persisted to epic viewership of Bangladeshi channels.
BSCL promised to provide 1,500 to 2,000 position-top boxes for data collection for rankings, but finest 200-300 were unquestionably build into provider, acknowledged Bangladesh Electronic Media Advertising Affiliation (EMMA) President Md Anisur Rahman Tareq.
The currently stuffed with life meters are insufficient to ensure TV channel advertisers that finest 20% of their commercials are being seen at any given time, he acknowledged.
Deepto TV’s Chief Operating Officer, Shubarna Parvin, also acknowledged that BSCL’s data collection intention has been defective.
Attributable to doubts about viewership accuracy, advertisers have transform conservative in paying very finest charges, ensuing in a income loss of around 30% for the industry, which consists of roughly 35 satellite TV channels, acknowledged Anisur Rahman Tareq.
He estimated that the annual marketing income of the TV industry is over Tk1,500 crore.
Anisur alleged that the authorities’s decision to shut down Kantar’s products and services correct by the pandemic used to be part of a conspiracy by professional-Awami League channels, which sought to exploit a loophole to manipulate rankings and inflate their viewership.
He also claimed that the then data and broadcasting minister Hasan Mahmud supported this slide to relief his own TV position, Green TV.
Hasan Mahmud did not acknowledge to TBS’s cell phone calls or textual utter messages.
Additionally, former BSCL chairman Shahjahan Mahmood confronted allegations of appointing a non-public college to plan its TRP arrangement for Tk5 crore with out an commence delicate job.
On the other hand, he defended the decision at that time, claiming it used to be made with factual intentions and that the amount spent used to be rather small.
When contacted, Md Mamun Or Rashid, public family officer at the Ministry of Files and Broadcasting, educated TBS that the authorities had already held a gathering to contend with industry complaints in terms of the TRP arrangement.
A senior BSCL legit educated TBS on Friday that declaring the provider successfully, while charging every channel Tk1.5 lakh per thirty days, would require well-known funding and skill development.
He added that a choice on whether BSCL will reinforce its products and services or quit them will be made after further discussions.