How BARC manipulated data on the pretext of âcontrolling outliersâ
The TV ratings agency was struggling to justify the data it was putting out and tinkering with it constantly.
The WhatsApp chats between
Republic TV editor Arnab Goswami and Partho Dasgupta, former CEO of Broadcast Audience Research Council, reveal how the television ratings agency was struggling to justify the data that it was putting out and tinkering with it constantly. This was all being done to push the narrative of âAll iz Wellâ and âwe know what we are doingâ.
This is the story of how a couple of men in positions of power helped set the narrative for what is ânewsâ. A BARC insider we spoke to revealed that Dasgupta and ex-COO Romil Ramgarhia were part of a system where they were manipulating data to decide how channels should be ranked.
Shambhavi Thakur
Renting Ferraris in Monaco, purchasing Rolex watches using company funds, and âchangingâ TRPs to get âdesired outcomesâ. These are just some of the unscrupulous practices followed by top former executives of the Broadcast Research Audience Council, according to a forensic audit of its operations.
The audit was done by Acquisory Risk Consulting Pvt Ltd, or ARCPL, a Mumbai-based risk management consultancy after it was approached by the BARC board and management last March. The board had decided to audit and review its records after receiving multiple complaints about alleged malpractices, including inaccuracy in its ratings process for TV channels and the concentration of power in its former senior management. The board included BARC chairman Punit Goenka.