What is TRP and how is it calculated?

TRP is known as Television Rating Point. It shows the rating of the TV

channel and the serial viewed most. Let us study through this lecture, what
is TRP, what is TRP rating, what is the effect on the program or the channel
of TRP and how it is calculated etc.

What is TRP and how is it calculated?

Most of the times we have seen people watching TV and we heard about
the TRP of channel or programme like the TRP of channel is increasing
day by day and so on. Do you know how to calculate the TRP of a TV
channel as well as shows running on a channel? Various factors are there
that define the TRP of a TV channel or programme. TRP is a well known
parameter for a Television. Let us study through this article about TRP,
what is the mechanism or procedure to calculate the TRP, What affect it
paves to the channel or programme etc.

What is TRP?
TRP is a Television Rating Point. It is the tool that tells us which channel
and the programme is viewed most or it indicates the popularity of a TV
channel or a programme. It shows how many times people are watching a
channel or a particular programme. TRP enables the advertisers and
investors to understand the mood of the people. According to the TRP of a
TV Channel or programme advertisers decide where to display their
advertisements and investors will decide about the investment of the
money.
How to calculate or check TRP?
Do you know that TRP is calculated by Indian agencies namely INTAM and
DART? INTAM is Indian Television Audience Measurement. Earlier, DART
that is Doordarshan Audience Research Team was used to calculate these
ratings as that time the only channel available was only Doordarshan. Still
DART exists and is an agency which takes the TV viewing pattern of rural
people into consideration. They randomly pick people and question them
about the various channels and TV programmes and also use electronic
methods to get the viewership statistics.
What is barcode and how is it made?
Following two electronic methods are there for calculating TRP:
1. People meters device is installed in some places or set in selected
homes to calculate the TRP. In this way some thousand viewers are
surveyed in the form of justice and sampling. These gadgets record data
about the channel or programme watched by the family members or
selected people. Through this meter the information of TV channel or
programme for one minute is carried out by the INTAM a monitoring team
i.e. Indian Television Audience measurement. After analysing the
information, the team decides what is the TRP of the channel or
programme. Or we can say that this data is later analysed by the agency
to create a national TRP data of various TV channels and TV programmes.
2. Second method is known as picture matching where the people
meter records a small portion of the picture that is being watched on the
TV. This data is collected from a set of homes in the form of pictures and
later on is analysed to calculate the TRPs.

What happens when TRP increases or decreases?

The increase or decrease in TRP of any programme directly affects the
income of that TV channel in which the programme is coming. Do you
know that any TV channel like Sony, Star Plus, Z Channel etc. earn
money through advertisements? If suppose the TRP of a programme or
channel is low which means that people are watching it less so,
advertisers will give less advertisements and pay less.  But, if the TRP is
high of the programme then more advertisements, advertisers and
money. So, we can say that TRP depends not only on the channel but the
programme as well. For example, if the TRP of a programme say Rising
Star is higher than any other programme then advertiser would like to
give advertisements in that programme and also pay more.

What is TRP Rate?

The TRP rate is one on which TRP of a TV channel is calculated. TRP of
any channel or programme depends upon the programme that is
displayed. It can be understood that when a film star arrives in a program
for the promotion of his movie, the TRP of that programme increases
automatically because people like to see that film star more.
So now you might have understood that the TRP is the Television Rating
Point, which helps in tracking the popularity and viewers of any program
or channel.