Just 2,000 Households Gauge Ratings of TV Channels in Pakistan
The television channels remain in an endeavor to add spice to the content, be it in form of fights, to get more ratings
TV ratings in Pakistan seem something that the channels are fond of to get and their spiels of claiming the top position aren’t something unheard of. However, its determination isn’t nettlesome and is something of a nasty business as the crown given to the television channels that prove their hegemony over the competitor is quite non-credible.
The TV channels in Pakistan remain in an endeavor to add spice to the content, be it in form of fights, to get more ratings and stay above their contenders.
However, the manner in which the Television Rating Point commonly known as TRPs are determined in the country is quite murky.
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The first company that started gauging TRPs in Pakistan is MediaLogic owned by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Salman Danish.
The domination of the MediaLogic CEO over media channels has been questioned in the past as well as it is to this day.
According to Profit, a back and forth spat between MediaLogic and the Express Media Group had involved accusations of bribery, kidnapping, extortion, and a plethora of unethical behaviors.
How channels are ranked?
The sample size to determine the ratings of TV channels in a population of more than 220 million is merely a few thousand households across the country.
These households have a rating meter installed with their TVs called people meter.
The data on the device is treated by MediaLogic which announces overnight rating of different channels.
The main feature of the data is the audio through which the ratings-ranker finds out about which channels were watched the most in a certain household.
Unrealistic sample size
In Pakistan, two companies named MediaLogic and Gallup Pakistan sequence TRPs of different channels but with a sample size of just 2,000 households in a population of more than 220 million people.
“These households are recruited as a sample of the population i.e. they need to be representative of the characteristics of the overall population”, said Salman Danish, in an interview with Profit.
The meters have been installed in some major cities including Karachi, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Hyderabad, Multan, Faisalabad, and Peshawar, he added.
According to a survey, most of the ‘people meters’ have been installed only in urban areas and there is no representation of rural areas even though 70% of the country’s population lives there.
The critics say that the owner of a TRP firm could reap personal gains to give one channel an edge over its competitors.
The relations between the owners of media organizations and rating company’s owner also raise a question on the credibility of TRPs.
