The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday said it has decided to engage Mumbai-based Hansa Research Group to conduct field work for the July 2022 round of consumer confidence and inflation expectation surveys.
Bennett Coleman & Company Ltd (BCCL) that owns the
Times of India newspaper and Times Now channel has sent legal notice to Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) alleging illegal and fraudulent viewership data manipulation and tampering of television rating points (TRP) of its TV channel, Times Now, by the Council. In the notice, BCCL has demanded a compensation of Rs431 crore along with an interest from BARC. It also asked refund of its licence fee of Rs21.83 crore paid to BARC along with the interest.
In the notice (seen by
Moneylife), BCCL says, Times Now’s viewership numbers or TRP were clearly fudged and manipulated by BARC from 2017-onwards. Times Now’s viewership numbers were deliberately and in a concerted manner, reduced for giving benefit to the newly launched channel, which has considerably and adversely impacted the revenue, growth, reputation, goodwill and image of the Times Now channel and the Times Group at the national and international level.
Hansa Research Group, the complainant in the Television Rating Points Scam (TRP Scam) has sought to transfer the investigation into the scam, from the Mumbai Police to the CBI, only after realising its nexus with the accused TV channels was being investigated, the Mumbai Police has said in an affidavit to the Bombay High Court.
Five of the 15 people arrested by the Mumbai Police in the TRP Scam are former employees of Hansa Research Group and two other former senior officers of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), the affidavit states. Hansa Research was hired to install Bar-o-meters in select households to gauge the viewing pattern of television programmes.
Will BARC in its current form be able to withstand the intense scrutiny?
31 Dec, 2020 - 08:55 AM IST | By Mansi Sharma
NEW DELHI: The broadcasting industry had already been reeling under the impact of the Covid2019 pandemic when the Mumbai police came down on it, hard. On 8 October 2020, Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh addressed a press conference about its investigation into an alleged scam involving the television audience measurement system.
The matter had come to light when ratings agency Hansa Services Pvt Ltd, a contractor of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), filed a complaint with the authorities, alleging that some TV channels had been manipulating their television rating points (TRPs). This had led to faulty calculations for advertisers and a major loss of revenue for stakeholders.
Romil Ramgarhia had left BARC in July this year.
17 Dec, 2020 - 04:03 PM IST | By indiantelevision.com Team
NEW DELHI: Mumbai police has taken in custody former Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) COO Romil Ramgarhia, marking the 14th arrest in the TRP manipulation case. He has been remanded in police custody till 19 Dec.
The development comes a day after Republic TV CEO Vikas Khanchandani was granted bail in the same case.
Ramgarhia had left BARC in July this year after a six-year-long stint with the council.
The alleged scam was busted in October this year when Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh held a press conference stating that three channels – Republic TV, Box Cinema, Fakt Marathi – were rigging ratings by paying people to keep the channels on even when they were not watching them. The TRP contracts were given to a company named Hansa Research Group Pvt Ltd. During the investigation, it was found that the ex-employees of Ha