IndianMascot
Core Member
The I&B Ministry is planning to generate real-time data on what the 120 million TV viewing households are watching by putting a chip into the set top boxes (STB). The move comes at a time when dominant television ratings company, TAM Media Research, is facing the heat from the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
The move may also raise privacy concerns and invite protests from rights activists but ministry officials say only such a system can counter allegations about the existing methodology of calculating Television Rating Points (TRPs).
The multi-service operators (MSO) and direct-to-home (DTH) cable TV companies in metro and 38 cities, where cable TV digitisation has been completed, will have to insert chips in the STBs. The second phase of digitisation got over on March 31 when analogue signals in these cities were shut down.
In the third phase, all municipal towns will shift to digital signals and in the last phase the entire country will be covered. The STBs will come fitted with the chip in cities that will be covered under the third and fourth phase.
"The chip will cost about Rs 15. We will bring a regulation that would make it imperative for MSOs and DTH operators to use it and record the data, which has to be handed over to appropriate authority," a source in the ministry said.
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The move may also raise privacy concerns and invite protests from rights activists but ministry officials say only such a system can counter allegations about the existing methodology of calculating Television Rating Points (TRPs).
The multi-service operators (MSO) and direct-to-home (DTH) cable TV companies in metro and 38 cities, where cable TV digitisation has been completed, will have to insert chips in the STBs. The second phase of digitisation got over on March 31 when analogue signals in these cities were shut down.
In the third phase, all municipal towns will shift to digital signals and in the last phase the entire country will be covered. The STBs will come fitted with the chip in cities that will be covered under the third and fourth phase.
"The chip will cost about Rs 15. We will bring a regulation that would make it imperative for MSOs and DTH operators to use it and record the data, which has to be handed over to appropriate authority," a source in the ministry said.
Wish to read further, ------>