The acronym TRP stands for Television Ratings Points. A TRP rating exists within a larger media research field known as TAM, or Television Audience Measurement. Under most circumstances, a TRP rating measures a show's viewing audience, with one TRP point equaling 1 percent of the targeted population group.
The TRP rating system serves to provide networks and advertisers with accurate information regarding a show's share of the viewing audience. Networks use the information to determine how much money to charge advertisers for placing commercials in the show. In turn, advertisers use the information to determine if purchasing commercials for a given program is a sound financial investment. Networks and producers of publicly funded, commercial-free programs may also benefit from TRP ratings, using the numbers to decide whether or not an undertaking is worth the time and effort.
To gather an accurate TRP rating, researchers utilize three distinct methods: random telephone calls, TV diaries and electronic devices known as people meters. About the size of a paperback book, a people-meter box attaches to a TV set and constantly monitors all activity, documenting the shows watched and the household members watching them. The collected information is transmitted via phone lines to a central computer, which then analyzes the data to create the TRP rating.
TRP ratings prove particularly beneficial in areas where targeted audiences are highly clustered with numerous channel choices and viewing options or when the targeted audience is scattered across a large region. INTAM, or the Indian Television Audience Measurement, utilizes TRP ratings to evaluate the television markets across India.
Several factors may influence a TRP rating's accuracy. An insufficient or improper coverage of an area's targeted population may skew results, providing an inaccurate representation of a show's performance. Monitored households must include a balanced geographical sampling and also an even distribution among economic levels to produce an accurate picture of the viewing audience. Networks may also misrepresent their true TPR performance, claiming to be the top-rated network when in reality they merely led the ratings in a brief time slot and may trail another network in overall performance.