Amid the fake TRP scam, TV ratings computing body Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) on October 18 said it is cooperating in the probe being conducted by the Mumbai Police and added that it is "highly disappointed" with Arnab Goswami-headed Republic TV's actions.
"BARC India has not commented on the ongoing investigation and it is providing necessary assistance to the law enforcement agency. BARC India is highly disappointed with the actions of the Republic Network by disclosing private and confidential communications and misrepresenting the same," it said in a statement.
"BARC is providing the necessary assistance to the ongoing investigation by law enforcement agency, and this should be seen in the light of larger stability of the panel and in the interests of self-regulation, rather than in isolated cases of particular channels which leads to a distortion of facts," the BARC statement said.
The body said it believes channels are committed to maintaining a clean ecosystem, and its efforts presently are focused on "individuals" responsible for infiltrating homes to influence the data.
The Mumbai Police has so far arrested six people for allegedly influencing particular channels' ratings by infiltrating homes which formed the sample size being monitored to determine the ratings.
Read | TRP scam: Fork in the road for stakeholders?
"Our efforts on combating infiltration are focused on the individual(s) responsible for these activities, and we firmly believe that television channels are committed to maintaining a clean and transparent ecosystem," BARC said in the statement.
The city police had claimed that three channels, including Republic Media Network, were allegedly influencing the TRP numbers. The Republic Network has denied the allegations.
According to the city police, brands take advertising calls based on TRPs and over Rs 32,000 crore of ad inventory is sold every year, which makes it think that it is a multi-crore scam. The arrested include former employees of an agency engaged by BARC.
Days after the alleged fake TRP scam came to light, the rating agency decided to stop publishing the weekly individual ratings for all news channels.
The alleged fake TRP scam came to light when BARC filed a complaint alleging that certain television channels were rigging TRP numbers.
Last week, Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh had claimed that Republic TV and two Marathi channels - Box Cinema and Fakt Marathi -manipulated TRP numbers for better advertisement revenue.
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