TRP Controversy: News Channels Rating Suspended For 3 Months

Last week the Mumbai Police department busted a TV ratings scam that allegedly involved Arnab Goswami led Republic TV. In view of this, the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) which is a television rating agency has decided to suspend the ratings of news channels for about three months.

In a statement BARC said they took this decision in order to review the current standards of measuring, to improve their statistical robustness and significantly hamper the potential attempts of infiltrating the panel homes. The suspension of ratings applies to all English, Hindi, regional and business news channels.

The News Broadcasters Association (NBA) which represents private news channels in the country has welcomed BARC’s decision and said this time will be utilized to implement important reforms at BARC.

The Mumbai Police who brought up this ragging row, are investigating the case. They have named three channels including Republic and the other two are Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema. Already the police have arrested the owners of Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema while directors and promoters of Republic TV are being quizzed.