MUMBAI: Clamping down on the practice of running a channel on multiple logical channel numbers (LCNs) allegedly for influencing television ratings, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) has advised the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) to discontinue the adoption of landing channels for the purposes of television audience measurement with immediate effect. Moreover, the ministry has asked BARC to send a compliance report on the same.
According to government sources, noncompliance on the landing page advisory “shall be violation of the Policy Guidelines for Television Rating Agencies in India."
The development comes close on the heels of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) statement on the issue on Tuesday. The telecom regulator issued a consultation paper to discuss the issue of the landing page (the page that appears when one switches on the STB and the TV set) and its many uses and misuses with the industry stakeholders.
Pointing out that the practice of running a channel on multiple logical channel numbers (LCNs) allegedly for influencing television rating was brought to the notice of the regulator, the TRAI statement said. Some TV channels allegedly, in collusion, with the distributors, placed some television channels on multiple LCNs (meaning at several places in different programming genres in the EPG), it added.
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