Amid growing concern over monopolisation of TRPs by private agencies, the government will set up a committee to look into the issue under its direct supervision.
The committee, likely to be headed by FICCI secretary general Amit Mitra, is expected to be constituted soon, Ministry for Information and Broadcasting officials said on Tuesday.
Senior ministry officials say that the committee could consist of certain government agencies, especially those involved in statistical research and media evaluation.
Through this committee the ministry could have a direct involvement in the process of evaluating the television rating points (TRPs) measurement, they added.
The government's decision to look into the TRP issue through a committee, came amid questions raised in Parliament about how just two private agencies namely aMAP and TAM were involved in measuring TRPs of TV programmes.
Both the Houses of Parliament had last year sought an explanation from Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni on how could these two agencies through their limited 10,000 boxes (used for measuring TRPs) judge which programme was more popular than the other.
Soni had sought some time from Parliament to look into the issue and the decision to form a committee is part of the ministry's action plan.
The minister had last week said while the committee would do its work, the ministry was also taking steps to revive the Broadcasting Audience Research Council (BARC), a mechanism which had been formed by some broadcasters in 2007 on recommendation of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for measuring TRPs.
