India / Police arrests 2 TV channel owners for manipulating TRPs, to probe Republic TV

Mumbai: In a major swoop, the Mumbai Police has unearthed a TRP scam naming three channels including Republic TV.

The Crime Intelligence Unit of Mumbai’s elite Crime Branch-CID has already started summoning people and making arrests.

During the investigations done by a research team associated with Hansa, Mumbai police found that the TRPs were manipulated allegedly by ex-employees of Hansa Research Group Pvt Ltd.

"The three channels that have been found manipulating TRPs are Republic TV, Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema," Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh said.

The officer told reporters that owners of Marathi channels Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema were arrested under Sections 409 and 420 of IPC.

Hitting back at the Mumbai Police, Republic TV’s Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami said it was an attempt to target the channel for its coverage of the Maharashtra government.

The Television Rating Points (TRPs) is calculated on the basis of TV channel viewership in a confidential set of households.

The Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), that functions under the ambit of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB), releases weekly rating points for TV channels in India and its own officials are also being questioned in connection with the case.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting notified the policy guidelines for television rating agencies in India on January 10, 2014, under which the industry-led body BARC was accredited to carry out the television ratings in India.