New Delhi: The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has sought a report from the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) over the rankings of TV channels in light of the recent alleged scam of manipulation of television rating points (TRPs).
The ministry wrote to ratings agency BARC on Friday, and the latter is expected to submit the report on Monday, following which the ministry will decide the future course of action, a senior official said.
“We have called for a report from BARC yesterday (Friday). We have sought all the details of the rankings. They should reply by Monday when their office opens,” said the official.
“First we will see the report and then we will give directions. We have asked for the rankings based on the recent incident that happened in Mumbai,” the official added.
When this paper approached BARC for a comment on the report sought, it said in an e-mail, “Any communication between BARC and the MIB (Ministry of Information and Broadcasting) is privileged communication. On a routine basis, we share updates with the MIB.”
In January 2014, the ministry notified the policy guidelines for television rating agencies and accredited BARC in 2015 which is currently mandated to conduct television ratings in India.
BARC releases weekly data on viewership pattern in the country.
The Mumbai Police recently said that it had unearthed a racket of manipulating TRPs of Republic TV and at least two more channels.
The police had said at the press conference that they had found some channels were manipulating the TRPs by paying former employees of Hansa research group which was in contract with BARC to conduct the research.
Republic TV said in a statement that Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh had made false allegations as the channel had questioned him in the investigation of the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.