Ashish Sehgal advocates single TV rating currency

As the broadcast industry revisits the debate on television viewership metrics, Zee Entertainment’s Chief Growth Officer Ashish Sehgal has voiced opposition to the idea of multiple TV rating bodies, calling instead for a robust and unified measurement system. 

His remarks come in the wake of TRAI Chairman A K Lahoti’s recent comment at WAVES Summit that “one TV rating agency is not enough,” which has reignited industry discussions on transparency, accuracy, and competition in audience measurement.

“If there is one TV rating and it is robust, then we should stick to one,” Sehgal told e4m during a recent conversation. “Otherwise, there are many currencies which will start floating in the market.”

Sehgal warned that a fragmented measurement ecosystem could further complicate an already splintered media landscape. “As it is, the mediums are fragmented. Over and above that, if your measurement becomes fragmented, there are two views to the same thing. What will you choose?” he asked, raising concerns about the implications for media buying and ROI assessments.

While acknowledging the potential value of a secondary measurement system, he stressed it should function solely as a validation mirror, not as a transactional currency. “We can at best have a second measurement which is a mirror... But the currency or the exchange or the transaction still happens on one measurement system.”

He further challenged the often-repeated claim that digital is more transparent than television. “While people say digital offers a lot of transparency, I believe it is actually the most opaque medium,” he said, highlighting the multiplicity of metrics and the subjectivity involved. “It’s your word against mine—I’ll always claim my platform is number one.”

Sehgal recalled a phase when television news channels had opted out of BARC and began citing YouTube data instead, each claiming to be the top-rated channel. “Everybody was saying we are the number one news channel advertiser... But when they came back to BARC, the picture was again different. So, it creates a lot of confusion in the industry.”

Further, Sehgal remains confident about television’s value for advertisers. “TV is addressing mass viewers at one given time. Any trend is formed when a lot of people think together, which is still television,” he said, adding that while digital offers scale, it lacks the shared viewing experience and emotional connection that television delivers.

He also believes with digital, there is ad clutter and the commoditization of products through algorithm-driven targeting. “If one is scrolling through Instagram and they search for one product, there is a clutter, and moreover, it’s all about discounting. That creates a misnomer about whether the brand is good or bad,” he noted. 

Meanwhile, he emphasized the growing importance of DD Free Dish in reaching new audiences. From a consumer perspective, Sehgal said the free-to-air platform serves an important segment—viewers who are new to television and may be unable to afford pay TV initially. “Buying a TV itself is the first step towards progress and Free Dish created that space,” he said. 

He also suggested that private DTH platforms missed an opportunity by not offering their own free-tier services. “If Tata Sky had their own Free Dish-like offering, they would have first acquired the customer and then graduated them to paid TV,” he explained. Now, the cost of marketing to upgrade Free Dish users to paid TV is prohibitively high unless driven by big-ticket events like the IPL.

From a broadcaster’s standpoint, Sehgal sees Free Dish not only as a content distribution tool but also as a marketing funnel. “There is a 40-50 million audience not watching your normal streaming channels. When we offer content on Free Dish, like movies or general entertainment channels, we give them a taste of our content. Then we can advertise within those channels and migrate them to Zee TV or Zee5.”

“Mobile is everywhere today,” he added. “You can reach your consumer directly. So, one, we serve that customer through advertising-supported content, and two, it becomes a tool to upgrade our listings.”

In conclusion, Sehgal’s call to action for the industry is clear: avoid fragmentation, invest in strengthening BARC, and build a seamless content and measurement experience across platforms.