Media fragmentation: The unfair opportunity marketers are missing out on

If a behavioural economist were asked to design a case study on why overconfidence in a single number can distort an entire market, it would resemble the recent BARC TRP controversy in Kerala.

A regional channel, a measurement system under suspicion, whispers of manipulation, and allegations of money exchanging hands to push a number upward. Predictably, the industry reacted with familiar words: fraud, trust deficit, measurement crisis. All valid concerns.

But the deeper question remains: in a world where audiences consume news on TV, commentary on YouTube, satire on Instagram Reels, and debates on WhatsApp, why does a single TRP number still determine so much of our decision-making?

The scandal isn’t only that the metric might have been compromised. It is that we have built our understanding of audience behaviour around one fragile number.

BARC began as a necessary standardisation effort—bringing structure, science, and shared reference points to India’s television landscape. Yet over time, TRPs shifted from being an input to being treated as the ultimate truth. Rate cards, agency strategies, newsroom decisions, and even executive bonuses started orbiting a single decimal point.

When that much power concentrates in one line on a spreadsheet, incentives flare, pressures build, and people begin to believe that everyone else might also be bending the rules.

But, India has transformed. Screens have multiplied. OTT has gone mainstream. YouTube has become a parallel universe with its own celebrities, genres, and loyalty loops. The traditional “TV household” has turned into a “multi-screen household” where attention is fluid and contested. Yet we continue treating the audience as a single unit, flattened into a solitary graph.

Fragmentation is not chaos. Fragmentation is people behaving naturally. One family member watches the 9 pm news, another half-watches a serial while scrolling Instagram, and a student toggles between a K-drama, a gaming stream, and a personal finance video. News arrives not as a fixed appointment but in dozens of small bursts across the day.

What we call “media fragmentation” is simply reality catching up with an industry that prefers linear planning templates. When viewed as one audience, it feels disruptive. When understood as people shifting between contexts, moods, and platforms, it becomes optionality: more surfaces to influence, more moments to capture, more opportunities for brands to show up meaningfully.

From one truth to many signals

Industry anxiety often stems from the belief that a perfect, unified metric exists—or should exist. It does not. Marketers today must work with a constellation of imperfect but directionally strong metrics: TV ratings, platform analytics, first-party CRM data, search behaviour, store footfall, and app engagement.

One TRP number can be manipulated. Three independent signals pointing to the same direction are harder to distort.

Take Kerala again. If a brand’s strategy hinges on one channel’s TRP spike, it is the media equivalent of day trading based on a single stock tip. A diversified “attention portfolio”—across TV, OTT, news apps, social platforms, and regional digital ecosystems—creates stability.

Marketers should ask smarter questions: Do suspicious TRP surges show up in search trends? Does higher television spends correlate with leads, website visits, or footfall? Does pressure on one medium create movement across others?

Fragmentation, when viewed this way, stops being a threat. It becomes an audit mechanism and a strategic advantage.

How the best marketers navigate fragmentation

The brands that remain calmer amid media complexity display three habits:

1. They start with humans, not channels - Instead of defining audiences by media silos, they map moods, behaviours, and daily rhythms. A working professional in Kochi may begin the morning with regional news, unwind with OTT crime dramas at night, consume finance content on YouTube, and share stories on WhatsApp throughout the day. Channels become pathways to reach the same mind in multiple states of attention.

2. They use fragmentation to build contextual depth - Rather than rely on a single, big master film, they develop one brand idea that flexes across platforms. Television builds narrative and stature. OTT adds depth and emotional duration. News apps create credibility. Social media delivers social proof through short-form content and influencers. The storytelling remains coherent but adapts to each environment.

3. They measure using a constellation, not a lamppost - BARC remains important. But it is one element within a broader measurement architecture. The best marketers let multiple metrics debate each other. When three independent measures converge, action becomes easier. When they diverge, they investigate rather than overreact.

India is built for fragmentation

India is naturally a fragmented media market with multiple languages, diverse income segments, cultural microcosms, and multi-generational households. Regional OTT platforms, language-first news apps, city-specific meme pages, micro-influencers, and hyperlocal creators do not fragment the ecosystem—they reflect it authentically.

Brands that embrace this diversity gain cultural relevance and access under-priced attention, especially in regional markets where trust is built through proximity and local language consumption.

What marketers can change as early as Monday:

1. Detox from single-metric dependency - Use BARC, but never in isolation. Cross-check with search data, site activity, app analytics, leads, and footfall. When your own data contradicts a flattering TRP number, trust your ground reality.

2. Build attention portfolios, not channel rivalries - The TV versus digital debate is outdated. Modern planning requires attention portfolios segmented by geography, demographic clusters, content behaviour, and purchasing intent. Channels become tools within a larger strategic kit.

3. Fund ideas that can travel across formats - Campaigns must withstand being sliced into six-second teasers, 20-second spots, 45-second narratives, and two-minute explainers without losing their identity. Adaptability is a creative requirement, not an afterthought.

Strong regulation and cleaner audits are essential for restoring trust. But they are not the only prize.

For the first time in India, marketers can deploy budgets in a state like Kerala and observe near real-time signals of effectiveness across multiple platforms. That capability makes fragmentation powerful, not problematic.

Kerala’s TRP controversy is a reminder: building strategy on a solitary metric is risky. Building it on many small, credible signals is where opportunity lies.

The brands that will succeed are not the ones waiting for one perfect, universally accepted metric. They are the ones comfortable navigating complex dashboards, triangulating multiple signals, and still making bold decisions.

-Ritz Malik, founder, Ritz Media World