TRAI directive on landing page: Policing or a fair move? Industry divided

“The whole objective behind digitisation was to bring parity for content creators to succeed on merit of its craft and not by using the financial muscle to gain reach,” asserted a leading news broadcaster while commenting on Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) latest directive on landing page. It has asked all broadcasters and distributors not to place any registered TV channel, whose TV rating is released by TV rating agency, on the landing LCN or landing channel or boot up screen. 

“Hence, it goes against the principle of digitisation,” said the broadcaster, who did not wish to be named, adding, “While landing can be used as an effective marketing tool by advertisers of all sorts, including broadcasters, provided it doesn’t carry the BARC watermark available on the linear feed or force the consumer to start on a particular channel/ LCN.” 

The regulator stated that a number of representations from stakeholders had been received, wherein it was reported that the practice of placing a registered TV channel on the landing page had the potential to affect the viewership data of that channel, and therefore, it was susceptible to influence the television audience measurement. 

On the other hand, MV Shreyams Kumar, Joint Managing Director, Matrubhumi Group, has applauded the move and is confident that it will ensure a level playing field and will do away with unfair advantage to those channels who have money to splurge. He further said, “Also, distributors who were already charging huge amounts by way of carriage and placement fees, were pitting one channel against the other to make an extra buck. The new directive from TRAI is fair to all.” 

Meanwhile, Divya Radhakrishnan, Managing Director, Helios Media, felt that TRAI getting into every aspect of broadcast, such as commercial time limit, etc., was akin to too much of policing. “There are no such regulations for other media like Press, Radio, etc. Why is TV being singled out? Landing page is just an advertising medium, how does it impact anything at all?” she asked.  

On how the directive will impact channel ratings, Radhakrishnan was of the view that channel ratings come from reach and time spent on a channel, which can be re-directed from any source and not just the landing page. And finally, content rules, irrespective of marketing might of which landing page is one such medium. 

“Ratings are a long term play. Landing pages generally help a new entrant in the market to grab immediate eyeballs. This has also been used by existing players for immediate recall among viewers. This is a short-term play and ultimately it is the content which will decide the fate of a channel,” opined Shreyams Kumar

In the Kerala context, he revealed that new entrants have resorted to landing page placements to grab immediate eyeballs and loyalty. But it is short-lived. 

Radhakrishnan, too, believes that it has been in practice for a very long time. “It is a medium and not a means to ramp up ratings. It works as efficiently as a medium. It’s like placing tent-cards in a restaurant,” she said. While Radhakrishnan felt that monitoring would be a big challenge while implementing TRAI’s directive, Shreyams Kumar said that everyone had to fall in line, especially the distributors of TV channels. 

When quizzed on what steps TRAI and the broadcast industry needed to take to safeguard against resorting to unfair means to spike ratings, Shreyams Kumar Kumar stated that more meters by BARC should give a better and robust  representation of viewership. Also, there has to equal representation of urban and rural ratings. For Radhakrishnan, this isn’t an unfair practice, hence no need for any steps to safeguard. What needs to be regulated is the selective reporting of data by broadcasters to claim leadership positions. 

Since advertising revenue is the most predominant source of revenue for most broadcasters, any skew in ratings affects the channel and its competitors and the advertising revenue thereof. However, using landing page is not a new phenomenon and has been used by broadcasters as a marketing tool. But now with these channels being watermarked, the rules are being tightened.

Media
@adgully

News in the domain of Advertising, Marketing, Media and Business of Entertainment

More in Media