BARC to cease ratings of news channels after alleged fake TRP scam surfaces

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Days after the alleged fake TRP scam came to light, rating agency Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has proposed that its Technical Committee (Tech Comm) shall review and augment the current standards of measuring and reporting the data of niche genres.

This is to improve their statistical robustness and to significantly hamper the potential attempts of infiltrating the panel homes.

During the exercise, BARC has decided to stop publishing the weekly individual ratings for all news channels, the rating agency said in a statement on October 15.

According to BARC, the exercise is expected to take around 8-12 weeks including validation and testing under the supervision of BARC’s Tech Comm.

In this period of time, BARC will continue to release weekly audience estimates for the genre of news by state and language, it said.

“Given the most recent developments, the BARC Board was of the opinion that a pause was necessitated to enable the industry and BARC to work closely to review its already stringent protocols and further augment them to enable the industry to focus on collaborating for growth and well-natured competitiveness,” said Punit Goenka, Chairman of BARC India Board.

The alleged fake TRP scam came to light when BARC filed a complaint through Hansa Research Group, alleging that certain television channels were rigging TRP numbers. It was alleged that some families at whose houses metres for collecting data of viewership were installed were being bribed to tune into a particular channel.

Last week, Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh had claimed that Republic TV and two Marathi channels – Box Cinema and Fakt Marathi -- manipulated TRP for better advertisement revenue. Republic TV rubbished Singh's claims.