Mumbai police makes arrests in BARC meter tampering case

The Mumbai police have made arrests in a BARC tampering case. 

Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh said the city police are probing a scam involving manipulation of TRPs by distorting the apparatus used by BARC to rate television channels.

The police said the accused were bribing households to keep a particular channel running. Two accused have been arrested. 

Owners of Marathi channels - Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema - have been arrested.

In a statement the Mumbai police has said: "The Detection Crime Branch have busted a major racket which is fraudulently involved in manipulating Television Ratings Points (TRP). Two persons are arrested in this regard. BARC is an organization which functions under the governance of Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

It claims that it powers 332000 crores Indian tv ad industry by providing sharp insights. It has installed approximately 30000 barometers in various parts of India which monitor various programs and based on the statistical metrics, BARC awards ratings to various tv channels. Based on these ratings, advertisers pay for their advertisers. Manipulated TRP ratings adversely result in miscalculated targeted audience for the advertisers. This further results into losses of hundreds of crores of rupees because of such manipulation's and fake statistics of TRP.

On a complaint the Crime Branch nabbed a person from Malad. In the preliminary inquiry he revealed that he had been working for a company which is a part of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC).

One of the arrested accused person and some of the wanted accused persons were employees of Hansa Research Group Pvt Ltd and they have misused the confidential data which had been entrusted to them. It has apparently been done for wrongful gains of various TV channels which had resulted in wrongful loss to various advertisers and their agencies. Preliminary investigations also revealed that these accused persons have manipulated the sampling metering services by inducing the barometer users by paying them periodically to watch particular tv channel / s. Many of the people in whose homes these barometers have been installed, have accepted that they have been monetarily beneficial for keeping their TV sets on even if they actually didn't watch."

BARC has issued a statement on the issue saying: "As in all our previous cases of suspected panel homes intrusions, BARC India continues to follow its established vigilance and disciplinary guidelines. BARC remains steadfastly true to its purpose to accurately and faithfully report ‘What India Watches’. BARC India appreciates the efforts of the Mumbai Police and will provide the support asked of it.”

The police said Republic TV's name has come up during the investigation and that their employees will be called for questioning.