In a significant paradigm shift for the Indian broadcast media landscape, the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India has announced it will discontinue its four-week rolling average system and, effective June 26, 2025, begin releasing weekly unrolled viewership estimates across all television genres. This highly anticipated move is set to provide the industry with more immediate, transparent, and granular insights into audience behavior, marking a major step towards enhancing the credibility and agility of TV viewership metrics in India.
The decision, which comes after a prolonged demand from various broadcasters, particularly those in the news genre, was made pursuant to a BARC India Board directive and after securing all necessary clearances. Previously, since March 17, 2022, following a 17-month hiatus prompted by the alleged TRP scam, ratings for the news genre were reported on a four-week rolling average basis. This methodology, while intended to stabilize data, often masked week-on-week fluctuations and made it challenging for broadcasters and advertisers to gauge immediate impacts of programming or events.
The transition to weekly unrolled data is widely expected to benefit news channels and broadcasters by offering a more real-time view of audience engagement. Advertisers and content owners will now be able to track channel performance on a weekly basis, enabling quicker decision-making, sharper insights into viewer trends, and more agile media planning and campaign optimization. This brings TV ratings closer in spirit and responsiveness to digital media analytics, where real-time metrics drive performance-based strategies.
BARC India, in its advisory to subscribers, has cautioned against directly comparing Average Daily Reach Share (ADRS) or other metrics derived from the old rolled data with the new unrolled weekly figures. This is due to fundamental methodological differences that could distort trending and interpretation. Furthermore, BARC clarified that historical unrolled data for the period when only rolled averages were published (Week 10’22 to Week 23’25) will not be made available retrospectively to subscribers, though the special YUMI licence issued to concerned broadcasters for accessing unrolled data of their own channels will remain operative for historical records.
Industry experts and broadcasters have largely welcomed this change, calling it a long-awaited and progressive step. The shift is anticipated to foster greater accountability and innovation in television programming, as channels will receive quicker feedback on the performance of new shows, revised strategies, and promotional efforts. It also levels the playing field for smaller or niche content creators, as sudden surges in viewership, previously masked by rolling averages, will now be immediately visible, offering more accurate recognition and monetization opportunities. Genres like live sports, breaking news, and special event programming are particularly poised to benefit from this immediate measurement capability.
This significant overhaul of BARC’s reporting system is expected to drive a recalibration in media spends and empower the Indian television ecosystem with enhanced clarity and actionable insights, solidifying its position in the dynamic media and entertainment industry.
Key Highlights:
- BARC India will start releasing weekly unrolled viewership data for all TV genres from June 26, 2025, ending the previous four-week rolling average system.
- This change aims to provide more immediate and transparent insights into audience behavior, benefiting broadcasters with quicker feedback on programming performance and enabling advertisers to optimize campaigns more efficiently.
- BARC has advised against directly comparing the new unrolled data with historical rolled data due to methodological differences and will not retrospectively provide unrolled data for the period when only rolled averages were published.
- The move is widely welcomed as a positive step towards greater accountability, innovation, and agility in India’s television measurement landscape.