The information and broadcasting ministry has issued a showcause notice to private company Chrome Data Analytics and Media for allegedly releasing and commercially using TV channels rating data without being a registered television rating agency. 

The ministry probed the company’s use of TRP data after receiving a complaint in the matter. It said the company is “understood to be releasing and commercially utilising rating data for TV channels without being registered as a rating agency which, prima-facie, is in violation of the said guidelines”.

The policy guidelines prescribe “detailed methodology for sample selection, data analysis, disclosure norms, grievance redressal, reporting requirements and so on,” the notice said, adding that the company should “withhold any commercial utilisation of the rating data”, although it may submit “an application fulfilling all the pre-requisites of the guidelines for getting registered” as a rating agency.

Chrome Data Analytics and Media describes itself as India’s largest technology-driven primary research and data analytics company, and a pioneer in the field of broadcast distribution auditing in India.

In September 2017, the Broadcast Audience Research Council received a letter from the I&B ministry directing the television audience ratings body to stop publishing ratings of certain channels, and stop rating channels that violated regulations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. The television viewership monitoring agency stopped ratings of individual channels in 2020, but resumed the practice in 2022.  

Newslaundry had earlier reported how the I&B ministry had highlighted that some news channels used landing pages to capture higher viewership by increasing their channel’s presence. The report mentioned that Chrome DM has been releasing data on landing pages, which is the channel one sees on the TV when it’s switched on the set-top box.