Following the fake Television Rating Points (TRP) scam, the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) on Thursday announced a temporary suspension of weekly ratings of news channels across languages.
The council intends to review and augment the current standards of measurement to improve on "statistical robustness", and the exercise will result in a "pause" in the weekly ratings for up to 12 weeks, an official statement said. BARC said the process of reviewing is expected to take around eight to 12 weeks, "including validation and testing under the supervision of BARCs Tech Comm". The agency will continue to release weekly audience estimates for the genre of news by state and language.
At least five people have been arrested by the city police which busted the scam earlier this month.
Those arrested include news channel employees, while the police are also questioning executives of Arnab Goswami-led Republic TV with regard to the case. Republic TV has denied any wrongdoing.
Welcoming the decision, the News Broadcasters Association said the period of suspension of ratings "will be utilised to implement important reforms at BARC". "Recent revelations have brought disrepute to the measurement agency and by extension the broadcast news media. The corrupted, compromised, irrationally fluctuating data is creating a false narrative on What India Watches and has been putting pressure on our members to take editorial calls that run counter to the journalistic values and ideals of journalism," said Rajat Sharma, president of News Broadcasters Association.
BARC measures TV viewership on behalf of broadcasters, advertisers and advertising agencies.
The alleged fake TRP scam came to light when ratings agency 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 said that Republic TV and two Marathi channels—Box Cinema and Fakt Marathi—manipulated TRP for better advertisement revenue. Republic TV had rubbished Singh's claims.
