TRP scam: What is BARC and how does it work?

With Mumbai Police alleging that they have busted a racket involving three news channels that have manipulated the TRPs or the Television Rating Points, the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has paused weekly ratings for news channels for three months in order to review its measurement system amidst the allegations.

What is BARC?

Incorporated in 2010 and based in Mumbai, India, the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India is a joint industry body founded by stakeholder bodies that represent Broadcasters (IBF), Advertisers (ISA) and Advertising & Media Agencies (AAAI). In short, BARC tries to ensure that the body puts forward a transparent, accurate, and inclusive TV audience measurement system.

It usually uses Audio Watermarking technology in a bid to measure the viewership of TV channels. Moreover, the system also permits the measurement of time-shifted viewing and simulcasts. Audio Watermarking is usually the process of embedding information into a signal (e.g. audio, video or pictures) in a way that is difficult to remove. If the signal is copied, then the information is also carried in the copy. In recent times, watermarking has become extremely crucial to enable copyright protection and ownership verification.

The TRP scam

Earlier on Monday, the Mumbai Crime Branch stated that they had arrested a former Hansa Research employee named Vinay Tripathi from Uttar Pradesh. Hansa Research happens to be one of BARC’s vendors on engagement with panel homes, or “people’s meters”. As per officials, the accused apparently played an important role in the scam as he paid another accused to manipulate the ratings. Moreover, the police have also arrested the owners of Box Cinema and Fakt Marathi, who have been accused along with TV channel Republic, regarding the same. According to sources, Republic TV’s Executive Editor Niranjan Narayanaswamy and Senior Executive Editor Abhishek Kapoor have also appeared before the Police in order to record their statements.

In recent times, especially with the death of Sushant Singh Rajput, several sections of the media have been severely criticized over the unjust and intrusive journalism which has led to widespread conjecture and continual mudslinging. Moreover, the Mumbai Police’s investigation regarding the actor’s death had also been heavily criticized. However, these new developments now bring up the questions of insinuation and instigations propagated by these news channels in the name of new-age journalism in the country.