MUMBAI:  As a part of its ongoing ‘data validation quality initiative’ aimed at improving measurement science and mitigating impact on viewership of extraneous factors, BARC India is introducing algorithms into its data validation method to mitigate the impact of landing page on viewership data across all genres of channels. Data release for Week 34, 2020, data starting 22 August 2020, release date 03 September 2020 will reflect the new initiative.

“The results of hundreds of hours of research and several months of rigorous development and testing are very promising. BARC India will now be able to mitigate any landing page anomaly to better reflect viewer’s choice.” says, BARC India measurement science and business analytics chief Dr Derrick Gray. He adds, “the existing method was based on symptomatic statistics and we have improved upon it with a method that directly uses inferential statistics to deliver better results across all genres.”

Complimenting the efforts of Dr Gray and his team, BARC India CEO Sunil Lulla says, “Considering that the data provided by BARC India builds the currency of the advertising trade, we consistently strive to ensure that our data capture, representation, and reporting be as scientific and accurate as possible. This new validation rule will further strengthen the rating currency and provide a level playing field to small and large broadcasters.”

“The ‘Data Validation Quality Initiative’ instituted by BARC India in June 2019 under the supervision of the Oversight Committee involves ongoing industry stakeholder consultations and internal reviews to identify dynamic improvement needed to continue strengthening the robustness of its ratings”, says Oversight Committee & BARC India board member Nakul Chopra, about the ‘Data Validation Quality Initiative’.