BARC Suspends Weekly Ratings For News Channels Amidst Fake TRP Racket

Television channels go through a rigorous work schedule in order to top the weekly TRP charts. Recently, Mumbai Police opened up about few news channels being involved in fake TRP racket. Now, in a new development, BARC has suspended the weekly ratings for all the news channels in question. The decision of the rating agency is likely to last for eight to twelve weeks and it will be applicable for Hindi, regional, English news and business news channels in the country.

The agency said in a statement, “BARC Board has proposed that it’s Technical Committee (Tech Comm) review and augment the current standards of measuring and reporting the data of niche genres, to improve their statistical robustness and to significantly hamper the potential attempts of infiltrating the panel homes”.

Chairman of BARC India Board, Punit Goenka apparently said that the temporary suspension of ratings was necessitated “to enable the industry and the agency to work closely to review its already stringent protocols and further augment them to enable focus on collaborating for growth and well-natured competitiveness”.

Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) temporarily suspends news channels’ ratings following fake TRP scam: Statement

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) October 15, 2020

For the unversed, Mumbai Police had named three leading news channels – Republic TV and two regional channels Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema to be allegedly involved in fake TRP scam. Mumbai police commissioner, Param Bir Singh was seen speaking about manipulated TRP for better advertisement revenue. Police officials have apparently registered a case in the TRP scam against Republic TV including other channels and summoned the channel’s chief financial officer (CFO) S Sundaram for investigation.

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Also Read: Republic-TV Under Scanner For TRP Manipulation: Mumbai Police