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New Delhi: Ratings Agency BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council) on Thursday temporarily suspended news channels’ ratings following the fake Television Rating Point (TRP) scam, in which Republic TV and two other channels were busted. The ratings will pause for all English, Hindi, regional and business news channels for three months.
The council intends to review and augment the current standards of measurement to improve on “statistical robustness”, and the exercise will result in a “pause” in the weekly ratings for up to 12 weeks, an official statement said.
“…starting with the ‘News Genre’, BARC will cease publishing the weekly individual ratings for all news channels during the exercise. This exercise is expected to take around 8-12 weeks including validation and testing under the supervision of BARCs Tech Comm. BARC will continue to release weekly audience estimates for the genre of news by state and language,” the BARC added.
Notably, this came after the Mumbai Police earlier busted news channel Republic TV, along with two other news channels, for being involved in rigging of their Television Rating Points.
In another update, the Supreme Court, during the hearing of Republic TV plea against the summons issued by the Mumbai Police to the news channel in connection with the TRP scam, said the court is concerned about the Police Commissioners giving interviews.
A bench headed by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and comprising Justices Indu Malhotra and Indira Banerjee at the outset of the hearing said: “We are concerned about Police Commissioners giving interviews.” The Mumbai Police Commissioner held a press conference in the scam.
The bench asked senior advocate Harish Salve, representing Republic TV, to move the Bombay High Court in the matter. Justice Chandrachud in a lighter vein told Salve, “Your office is in Worli. And, the Flora Fountain is not too far from Worli.” The top court held a very short hearing on the Republic’s TV plea.
The top court observed that like any ordinary citizen facing investigation under CrPC, petitioners must also go to the High Court first. Salve agreed to withdraw the petition with the liberty to approach the High Court. The top court told Salve, “We must have faith in the High Court”.
(With agency inputs)
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