Hyderabad police registers case against seven people for tampering TV viewership

The Hyderabad police has booked seven people for allegedly tampering TV viewership for two Telugu news channels in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The police filed a charge sheet before a court on Monday.

The cases were registered following a complaint lodged by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC)’s vigilance wing with the Marredpally police. This is the latest incident in which BARC has taken action. Earlier, BARC had taken action against viewership tampering in Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Assam.

The police has registered cases under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) of the IPC, read with 34. While the seven accused were detained a few months ago, this is the first time that a charge sheet has been filed. The accused tried to influence viewers in BARC households where meters were installed.

In July, BARC India had upped its vigilance drive with stronger counter-measures to protect the system from Panel Tampering and other unfair practices with respect to manipulation of television viewership.

In March 2017, BARC India had set up an independent Disciplinary Committee (DisComm) to probe complaints of viewership malpractice. Over the course of last 28 months, 18 cases have been referred to the DisComm with evidence of such malpractices.

BARC had noted that the highest number of instances have been reported from markets in South India: 6 from Tamil Nadu, 5 from AP/Telangana and 1 from Karnataka. Penal action has been taken against 12 channels in the country. It may be recalled that FIRs were filed in Telangana and arrests have been made in Karnataka and Gwalior.

The DisComm is headed by Justice Mukul Mudgal, former Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court, and has representation of all three industry bodies Indian Broadcasting Federation (IBF), Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA) and Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI). The committee also comprises of D. Shivanandan, former Mumbai Police Commissioner and Maharashtra DGP, and Paritosh Joshi, independent technical expert.

BARC India had also stated that it is evangelising initiatives like Sample Return Path Data (SRPD), which will not only make the viewership data more robust but will also help address the issue of panel home tampering. BARC India also has a strict code of conduct for redressing viewership malpractices that is undertaken by all entities subscribing to BARC India’s weekly service.

The council has also engaged with TRAI and Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) to get regulatory support and legal provisions to make panel tampering a punishable offence.