Aunindyo Chakravarty
Senior Economic Analyst
If the Mumbai Police are to be believed, then we now have documentary evidence that India’s television ratings system is rotten to the core. The evidence I am referring to is, of course, the alleged WhatsApp chats between the former chief of BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council), India’s main TV ratings agency, and the country’s top reality TV entertainer, Arnab Goswami. The chats reveal a high degree of collusion between Goswami and Dasgupta, where the then BARC CEO was actively helping Republic TV score higher in the ratings rat race, and hobbling other channels.