The Mumbai Police on Thursday alleged that Arnab Goswami’s Republic TV has been manipulating television rating points (TRP) data to boost its advertising revenue.
Republic TV — an English news channel launched by Goswami in 2017 — has been consistently topping the viewership charts released weekly by industry body Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) since it hit the screens.
Even Republic Bharat — the group’s Hindi news channel launched last year, has topped BARC’s TRP charts in the Hindi news genre.
But the Mumbai Police Crime Branch has accused Republic and two other channels, Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema, of being involved in a “major racket” of manipulating viewership data.
Addressing a press conference Thursday, Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh said the police has already made some arrests, including the owners of the other two channels, and is in the process of questioning more people.
“If needed, we can even call the owners, promoters and directors of Republic TV for questioning,” the commissioner said.
Republic TV is owned and managed by ARG Outlier Media Asianet News Private Limited, which is a subsidiary company of SARG Media Holding Private Limited, of which Arnab and his wife Samyabrata Goswami are co-founders and promoters, and own 93 per cent of the shares.
Republic TV has denied the allegations in a statement on behalf of Arnab Goswami, saying Singh is making false allegations against it since it “questioned” him in connection with the investigation into actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death by suicide.
Meanwhile, a BARC India spokesperson said: “As in all our previous cases of suspected panel homes intrusions, BARC India continues to follow its established vigilance and disciplinary guidelines. BARC remains steadfastly true to its purpose to accurately and faithfully report ‘what India watches’. BARC India appreciates the efforts of the Mumbai Police and will provide the support asked of it.”
