TRP Scam: BARC halts publishing of TRP ratings for news publishers pending review

The BARC has decided to pause the publishing of weekly audience ratings of news channels, in light of recent accusations of rigging of the television rating points (TRPs) by some news channels.

“In the light of the recent developments, BARC Board has proposed that its Technical Committee review and augment the current standards of measuring and reporting the data of niche genres, to improve their statistical robustness and to significantly hamper the potential attempts of infiltrating the panel homes. This exercise would cover all Hindi, Regional, English News and Business News channels with immediate effect,” BARC said, adding that the exercise would 8-12 weeks to finish.

In a statement, the Chairman of BARC India Board, Punit Goenka said, “Given the most recent developments, the BARC Board was of the opinion that a pause was necessitated to enable the industry and BARC to work closely to review its already stringent protocols and further augment them to enable the industry to focus on collaborating for growth and well-natured competitiveness.”