TRP Fraud Bust: Republic TV Among 3 Channels Probed

Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh on Thursday said the city police are investigating a scam that involves the manipulation of TRPs.

Addressing the media, Singh said three channels, namely Fakt Marathi, Box Cinema, and Republic-TV are allegedly a part of distorting the device used by BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council) to rate television channels.

The commissioner said that the accused were "involved in bribing the audience of various households, asking them to run channels continuously even while they weren't viewing it".

Reportedly, BARC's officials are also undergoing interrogation in this connection.

BARC has submitted that Republic TV is a suspect in TRP manipulation, the Mumbai Police Commissioner said.

"Promoters and directors of Republic TV will be summoned and questioned and summons will be sent to Republic officials, including Director Arnab Goswami on Thursday and they will be asked to appear before the investigating team," the commissioner added.

"Two people were arrested, produced in court and the Mumbai Police has got their custody. One accused has been arrested with Rs 20 lakhs while Rs 8.5 lakhs has been found in a bank locker", Commissioner Singh said.

The commissioner further added, "Owners of Marathi channels Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema have been arrested. Arrests were made under sections 409 and 420 of IPC".

The complaint was filed by Hansa Research and Mumbai Police have shared the probe findings with the Information and Broadcasting (I&B) ministry.

The TRP (television rating points) is calculated based on television channel viewership in a selected set of households. There are 2,000 barometers installed in Mumbai to monitor TRPs and outsourced confidential contracts to an agency called 'Hansa' for monitoring these barometers.