Mumbai: The Detection Crime Branch of Mumbai police claimed to have unearthed a Television Rating Points (TRP) racket and said that it had arrested four persons including owners of two Marathi channels for the manipulating viewership ratings, here on Thursday. Another police official said two former employees of Hansa agency, involved in the process to determine the TRPs, have been arrested and also Rs 20 lakh cash recovered from one of the accused, adding an amount of Rs 8.5 lakh seized from his bank locker.
Addressing the media, Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh stated that a national TV news channel, facing flak over its attack on Mumbai police and Maharashtra government in the Sushant Singh Rajput death case, was also involved in the TRP racket.
"This particular national news channel is also involved in the TRP racket and the persons responsible for this, irrespective of the channel's director, promoter or any other employee, would be arrested. Based on these TRP ratings, advertisers pay to advertise on these channels and it is a game of thousands of crores. Manipulated TRP ratings result in the miscalculated targeted audience for the advertisers, adding this results in losses of hundreds of crores of rupees because of such manipulations and fake statistics of TRPs," Singh asserted.
It may be recalled that TRP is a tool to judge which TV programmes are viewed the most and also indicates the viewers' choice and popularity of a particular channel. It is interesting to note that the development, by Mumbai police, comes after their claim that nearly 80,000 fake social media accounts were set up to defame the Maharashtra government and its entire structure.
Singh also said that the bank accounts of these channels are also being probed and people responsible for the TRP racket are being summoned by police for further investigation in the case.
Three channels named, Republic under the scanner
"Based on the information and evidence we have gathered, we have identified three channels - Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema, which are vernacular media, and the third one being Republic Television, based on BARC analytical report for 'Suspicious Trend'. Customers have admitted that they have been bribed, by those involved in the racket, to keep some channels switched on even when they were not watching or at home. The investigation will be taken to a logical conclusion," he added.
