The Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA), one of the stakeholders in the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), has backed the audience measurement body's landing page algorithm.

In a statement, the ISA stated that BARC has launched a “Data Validation Quality Initiative” aimed at improving measurement science and mitigating the impact on viewership of extraneous factors.

It further stated that BARC India has introduced an algorithm into its data validation method to remove the impact of the landing page on forced viewership data across channels.

This method, the ISA said, directly uses inferential statistics to deliver better results across all genres. This has been verified and authenticated by BARC’s technical committee.

ISA Chairman Sunil Kataria added, “BARC algorithm detects landing pages with a very high success rate and once detected, the algorithm seeks to remove any forced viewership and voluntary viewership gets counted as real viewership for that channel. This is a fair method and that the advertisers are aligned on the solution executed by BARC on the issue of landing page viewership."

The statement comes in the wake of demands from some industry stakeholders about the need to segregate landing page data from the actual TV viewership. The stakeholders believe that the landing page presents a distorted picture of the popularity of TV channels.

The landing page issue has divided the TV news industry with some players claiming that it favours media companies that have deeper pockets while its proponents claim that landing page is a perfectly legal practice even as the matter is pending before the Supreme Court.