ARC’s forensic audit reveals the extent of manipulation in BARC TRP data

In the past few weeks, India’s premier industry body for measuring television ratings has been under intense scrutiny for TRP manipulation. Leaked Whatsapp chats between former BARC CEO, Partho Dasgupta and Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami have opened up a can of worms and show the collusion between the two and how Dasgupta favoured Republic TV.

The chat history extending to over 500 pages reveal how rules were bent to favour Republic TV. As is known, Dasgupta and Goswami had earlier worked together at Times Now. Republic TV has been consistently been at the No. 1 spot among English news channels ever since its launch in 2017, overtaking Times Now.

Dasgupta was arrested by the Crime Branch of Mumbai Police in December 2020 in the TRP rigging case. Before that Romil Ramgarhia, former COO of BARC India, was arrested in December 2020. He has since been released.

In a latest development, current BARC CEO, Sunil Lulla commissioned a forensic audit that was done by Acquisory Risk Consulting (ARC) to find out the extent of TRP rigging in BARC. ARC’s findings, which were revealed in a report carried by The Economic Times (January 20, 2021 edition), shows several cases of manipulation of TV ratings data.

This has raised serious questions on the integrity of BARC data. According to the ET report, ARC’s audit has found the direct involvement of Romil Ramgarhia, who was aware of ratings being manipulated to favour a particular channel. ARC further states that Dasgupta was also in the know of the TRP riggings happening and “may have even assisted it”, states the ET report.

ARC has also mentioned about cartelisation in BARC and the power resting with the select few among the top ranking officials of BARC.

Undoubtedly, the ARC forensic report raises several questions over the TV ratings sanctity and the functioning of BARC is also under a cloud. Broadcasters and industry experts are in a tizzy, though several had been stating that ratings manipulations had been going on for quite some time now.

Will this lead to BARC India cleaning up its act? Will it result in the much needed rehauling of the TRP ratings system in the country? Or will it lead to advertisers shunning the BARC data and looking for alternate means? It’s a tense wait and watch for future developments.