NEW DELHI: Former Disney and Star India boss Uday Shankar is not known to mince his words. In a conversation with Madison Group CEO Vikram Sakhuja during Madison’s annual ad report announcement, Shankar suggested that broadcasters should get out of the TV measurement system in the country under the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC). 

Expressing his concerns over the “unhealthy obsession with measurements,” Shankar said the focus should instead be on long term health and strategy of the business. “We need a currency for business, but over the years, we have turned it into a measurement of success. It has led to too much distortion. The degradation that we have seen is dangerous, to say the least. I think the broadcasters should remain out of it. The recent controversy and the unsavoury fall out is a good enough reason to move out.”

Shankar was, of course, obliquely referring to the alleged TRP manipulation scandal that has rocked the TV news industry, after leading channels were named by the Mumbai police for their involvement in the matter. Over the course of last few months, several arrests have been made in the case, including former BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta who has been dubbed the “king pin” of the ratings racket by investigators and prosecutors in the know.

As someone who was instrumental in setting up BARC, Shankar remarked that it has been a huge let down, primarily because it did not align itself well with the vision of the 21st century.

“Why do we need a community rating system? It is a legacy of the past, a suboptimal solution, which is exposed to all kinds of distortions. When it is possible to measure the universe, then why would we not do that? I’m not in favour of third-party measurement at all,” he said.