Will BARC in its current form be able to withstand the intense scrutiny?
31 Dec, 2020 - 08:55 AM IST | By Mansi Sharma
NEW DELHI: The broadcasting industry had already been reeling under the impact of the Covid2019 pandemic when the Mumbai police came down on it, hard. On 8 October 2020, Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh addressed a press conference about its investigation into an alleged scam involving the television audience measurement system.
The matter had come to light when ratings agency Hansa Services Pvt Ltd, a contractor of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), filed a complaint with the authorities, alleging that some TV channels had been manipulating their television rating points (TRPs). This had led to faulty calculations for advertisers and a major loss of revenue for stakeholders.
Highlights
Last month, the Centre had constituted a four-member committee to review the guidelines on television rating agencies in India
It had asked the panel to submit its report to the Information and Broadcasting minister within two months
New Delhi: A Television Rating Points (TRP) manipulation racket was busted in Mumbai on October 7. The Mumbai Police came out with a startling revelation that two former employees of Hansa, which is responsible for the maintenance of over 3000 parameters across the country, including around 2000 in Mumbai, allegedly tampered with the TRP data.
TRP is a tool to judge which TV programmes are viewed the most and also indicates the viewers choice and popularity of a particular channel.
Updated Dec 29, 2020 · 03:18 pm A file photo of Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami. | Sujit Jaiswal/AFP
The Mumbai Police submitted before a court on Monday that Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami had allegedly bribed television rating agency Broadcast Audience Research Council’s former Chief Executive Officer Partho Dasgupta with “lakhs of rupees” to ramp up his channel’s viewership,
The Indian Express reported.
This is the first time the city police have named Goswami for his involvement in the alleged Television Rating Points manipulation scam. Dasgupta, on the other hand, was arrested in connection with the case on December 24, and was last week remanded to judicial custody till December 28.
Former BARC CEO rigged random sampling of 40 weeks: Mumbai Police
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Last Updated: Dec 28, 2020, 08:49 AM IST
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Synopsis
The Mumbai Police also told the court that they have come across certain email exchanges between Dasgupta and another accused Romil Ramgarhia, the former chief operating officer (COO) of BARC, discussing ‘illegal manipulation’ of ratings of Republic TV and Republic Bharat.
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The police also told the court that as the CEO, Dasgupta used his seniority to pressurise employees under him to manipulate TRPs.
Mumbai: The Mumbai Police, while seeking the custody of Partho Dasgupta, the former CEO of TV rating agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), told the court that Dasgupta manipulated data to keep the Times Now news channel at the number two slot in spite of a higher viewership.
The city crime branch, probing the Television Rating Points (TRP) manipulation scam, on Friday said that Romil Ramgarhia, former chief operating officer of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC)
MUMBAI: The city crime branch, probing the Television Rating Points (TRP) manipulation scam, on Friday said that Romil Ramgarhia, former chief operating officer of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), was offered holiday packages and shopping coupons by a TV channel for sharing confidential information on the chosen audience for assessing viewership patterns.
BARC, the joint broadcasting industry body, is responsible for designing, commissioning, supervising and owning India’s TV audience measurement system.