Republic TV is among the three channels being investigated for allegedly gaming ratings and using them to spread fake narratives and gain ad revenues, the Mumbai police said today.
He identified three channels, namely Fakt Marathi, Box Cinema, and Republic-TV which the police commissioner said are involved in distorting the apparatus used by BARC to rate television channels.
The TRP is calculated on the basis of TV channel viewership in a confidential set of households.
As per the commissioner, the accused would bribe these households and ask them to run some channels continuously even if they were not home.
The BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council) releases weekly rating points for TV channels in India and its own officials are also being questioned in connection with the case.
Giving details of the racket, Singh said that an organisation named ‘Hansa’ was helping these channels in trying to manipulate the TRPs.
“Around 2,000 barometers installed in Mumbai were being used to manipulate TRPs,” Singh said.
The crime branch then registered an FIR at Kandivali police station on charges of cheating and criminal breach of trust, following which they arrested a former employee of Hansa and his associate.
Republic TV soon put out a statement denying the allegations, saying it will file criminal defamation case against the Mumbai Police Commissioner. “Republic will fight back, Republic will continue its investigation into the Sushant Singh Rajput case, the Palghar case and any other case,” the statement read.
Congress MP Karti Chidambaram called for a Parliamentary Committee probe in the fake TRP bust made by Mumbai Police against the three channels, including Republic TV.