NEW DELHI: After having played the third umpire in the cricket telecast issue vis-?-vis Indian pubcaster, the government is now stirring up the ratings issue by saying today it's open to the idea of allowing other players also to get into the act of measuring viewership and viewing patterns in Indian TV homes.

Information and broadcasting minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi told Lok Sabha (Lower House of Parliament) today that when TRP started in 2000 only TAM, which has an arrangement with an American company, came forward with some credibility.

But his ministry was now open to the idea of ensuring more coverage and allowing more sample surveys to make TRPs a complete exercise, Press Trust of India quoted the minister as having said in Parliament.

Allaying fears of members that TAM had commercial interest as also the private TV companies, which at times "manipulate" data to get large chunk of an estimated Rs 50 billion advertisement revenue, Dasmunshi said DD's terrestrial network had the highest rating and its commercial revenue was continuously going up.

"We are not suffering in advertisement. We are also incurring profit," he said, but admitted that in terms of satellite and cable TV networking DD News was lagging behind some of the private channels.

In this context, the minister announced that a major upgradation and technology improvement programme was underway to ensure that the quality of DD reception at homes was as good as its competitors.