Four people have been arrested, including the owners of Box Channel and Fakt Marathi.
Mumbai:
After the Mumbai police announced an investigation against Republic TV and two other channels for audience manipulation, a man whose home had a “people meter” to verify the audience revealed that he had received monthly payments to watch certain channels.
The man, one of three witnesses police say was bribed by the channels, also said he was told that the meter installed in his home would take care of his bills and automatically recharge his DTH platform.
“The Bar-o-meter executive told me to watch Box Cinema (one of the three channels under investigation). He said that I should watch the channel from 2 pm to 4 pm and they would pay me 500 rupees,” the viewer said. NDTV.
He said he did it for two to three years and never realized it could be related to manipulating TRP or TV Rating Points.
He stopped when he had to go to his village. “I was out and my TV was off. I told them I was no longer watching TV,” he said.
Four people have been arrested, including the owners of Box Channel and Fakt Marathi. They were sent to judicial custody today.
The directors and promoters of Republic TV are under investigation, according to Mumbai Police Chief Param Bir Singh.
“People meters” attached to televisions measure ratings. In Mumbai, there are 2,000 households that have these meters installed in order to assess the audience of various channels.
The information gleaned from these meters must be kept secret.
The rating agency BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council) contracted the private agency Hansa to install the meters.
The Mumbai police chief said Hansa had complained about the manipulation of television ratings. The data was found to have been shared with media companies, who allegedly bribed households to keep their channels on even when they weren’t watching.
Singh said both BARC and Hansa had shared evidence that the channels had bribed some households to increase ratings.
Republic TV has vigorously refuted the allegations and accused the Mumbai police of vendetta because it had raised questions about the Sushant Singh Rajput investigation.
“The complaint was filed by the independent agency Hansa, not us. They noticed suspicious trends, not us. They noticed suspicious trends in the ratings or on certain channels. They shared details of the discrepancies,” the police chief told NDTV.
“We have called three witnesses who were paid money to watch a particular channel,” he said.
The Mumbai Police First Information Report also mentions India Today, but Singh told NDTV: “At the FIR, India Today was named after one of the witnesses. But as the investigation progressed, neither BARC, nor no witnesses, no defendants named India Today. All called Republic TV, Marathi channels. So far there is no evidence against India Today. We are proceeding against Republic TV, Marathi channels. “
Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami said “there is not a single BARC report that mentions Republic TV.” “The people of India know the truth. BARC has not mentioned the republic in any complaint,” he added.
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