Industry still at odds over viewership spike

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Over the use of landing pages to outperform the competition, the TV news industry is still divided. The argument over the morality of using landing sites as a method of distribution tactics to increase viewing continues, even though there is no legal restriction on their usage for marketing and promotional objectives.

The argument centers on the landing page’s susceptibility to being used to sway viewership since it is the default channel that launches when a viewer turns on their set-top box. Since there is no way to separate landing page data from actual viewership, the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) measures viewership based on presence on the landing page.

TV news industry split; Avinash Pandey, CEO of ABP Network, thinks that using landing pages is a regressive practice that harms journalism by giving an unfair advantage to those who can afford it. Additionally, he made note of the fact that distribution platform operators (DPOs) compel consumers to watch landing page channels for a predetermined amount of time. A channel can increase awareness by using landing pages, according to Times Network MD & CEO MK Anand, who offered a contrasting viewpoint. He argued that the increase in viewers brought on by landing pages is entirely legitimate.

What industry bodies think; The News Broadcaster Federation (NBF) recently expressed its dissatisfaction, claiming that BARC has failed to fix the landing page issue, in a letter to I&B minister Anurag Thakur. The federation claims that the measuring system as a whole has been undermined by the Landing Page issue’s inability to be addressed. However, the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA), a significant BARC shareholder, has applauded BARC for including an algorithm into their data validation procedure to eliminate the influence of the landing page on viewership. Inferential statistics are used directly in the data validation process to produce better outcomes across all genres, it was added. BARC India Technical Committee Chairman Vikram Sakhuja informed that the algorithm used by BARC is capable of detecting forced viewing originating from a landing page which is then taken out from the final viewership data while praising ISA’s comments on BARC’s landing page algorithms.

 Unending debate – The dispute about the landing page, according to Paritosh Joshi, principal of Provocateur Advisory, is pointless because what counts most is how many people are watching a certain channel. He continued that while landing pages have a greater reach, better content is still necessary to draw in more users. Additionally, he mentioned that landing pages are a significant expense that no broadcast firm can bear past a certain point.

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