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BARC rating process has more clarity now: Rahul Shivshankar

The Editorial Director & Editor-in-Chief of Times Now during a roundtable spoke about the channel’s performance, channels pulling out of BARC and much more

by Team PITCH
December 06, 2022

BARC rating process has more clarity now: Rahul Shivshankar

BARC in its current avatar is clean, said Rahul Shivshankar, Editorial Director and Editor-in-Chief, Times Now, during a roundtable discussion.

Speaking about the rating system, post BARC resuming the ratings, Shivshankar said there has been no been drop in the channel’s TVT and it has only increased.

“I'm talking about the manipulation that was alleged to have happened, and there is, of course, an audit report that suggested that Times Now's numbers were being deliberately brought down. And we were selectively targeted because we were seen as the market leader even by a fellow competitor.”

He further added that the system is now clear and clean. “Now we can have arguments over how many meters there should be, whether the system is representative enough or not. But I'm only talking about the process and it suggests there is absolute clarity.”

Talking about the news genre’s viewership, Shivshankar said there has been a growth, both in overall reach and TVT figures. “Every time there's been a new addition, the universe has grown. The collective eyeballs have grown. The challenge is, however, to remain relevant. When you have so many different kinds of media it means we have to approach our content strategy differently.”

He also shared that because of the manipulations from 2017 to 2019 Times Now lost ad revenue and took a hit of almost Rs 400 crore. “Nonetheless, leadership is now with Times Now and the channel still gets double the amount of ad revenue.”

Post BARC resuming ratings, Shivshankar said Times Now’s share has improved from 24% (pre-resumption) to 40%. The channel retains its leadership in both reach and TSV, he added.