While watching the news on television, you must have thought quite a lot of times why these new channels show content with so much spice added to it.
Well, there are a lot of reasons behind this, and gaining a high TRP (Television Rating Point) rate is one of the major motives for that.
Whether it’s Hindi news local or English news channels, everyone needs a high TRP rate.
But, why TRP has become so important to the media channels?
To understand this firstly, you need to know what TRP is and how it’s calculated?
TRP- What it is?
TRP is defined as the percentage of specific people consuming a medium at a specific time. In simpler words, TRP is a method to recognize the popularity of a particular programme. It’s a catalog that provides us clear thought about what the audience prefers.
How to calculate TRP?
TRP is calculated by linking Peoplemeters with the Televisions of a few thousand viewers for tracking their activity such as what serials they watch, which movies they prefer, or which English news channels, Hindi Samachar or Hindi news they prefer and what are their timings.
There are two organizations named TAM Media Research & BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council ) which are accountable for calculating TRPs. Furthermore, these research organizations are also responsible for monitoring the advertising expenditure on various channels.
Why TRP is important for media channels?
The high TRP rates are crucial for media channels because high TRP rates pull more advertisements. Time slots having a higher number of watchers are being auctioned at a higher cost which results in higher revenue.
Before scrutinizing media channels for bestowing inappropriate topics we should admit our mistake also which urged media organizations to do that.
Let’s take an example, A journalist from Mumbai has to reach Delhi for capturing breaking news in Hindi, English, or any other languages. The emergency flight ticket for both sides will cost around INR 10,000.
And if the journalist spends 1 day in the city, then it will cost him approx Rs. 500 for food. Add 2000 for the cabs that he will use to travel within the city to reach different places.
Now you will understand how much a single reporter costs. Moreover, for channel distribution organizations have to spend approx Rs. 30-35 crore per annum to reach us.
Whereas a user spends only Rs. 2 on a news channel. Can you imagine the number of reports that we notice every day on these media channels only for Rs 2?
Well, to balance their expenses these media channels require advertisers. And these advertisers only care about the TRP rates of the channel.
Moreover, Indian audiences also show curiosity to know more about their favorite celebrities and their personal lives. And that’s the reason why news channels concentrate so much on them.
In simpler words, we are liable for the content or news that we view on these media channels. The content curators only share the things we ask from them.
The scenario is similar to internet content as well. Social Media Channels, pages, blogs, and websites share the trending news that their users prefer to read and share.
Through this, they get more likes and views and make more money.
It’s not that the content curators don’t want to create unique and interesting things, but when they don’t receive the desired response from the audience, it makes them sad and they are forced to follow the same regular path to keep their audience engaged and happy.
So, from the next time, when you see something that you find fake and inappropriate, you have the power to change that channel and provide TRP to the channel that you think provides valuable and informative content to the audience.