TRP: Target rating Point or Television rating point is the metric used by the marketing and advertising agencies to evaluate statistics of the channels seen by the Indian viewers.
TRP represents the people from different socio-economic backgrounds who watched which channels for how long and for how much time during a particular period.
What is BARC?
It is an industry body jointly owned by advertisers, agencies and broadcasting companies represented by the Indian Society of Advertisers, The Indian Broadcasting Foundation and The Advertising Agencies Association of India and this governing body is created in 2010.
I&B Ministry notified the policy guidelines for Television Rating Agencies. In India on January 10, 2014 and registered BARC in July 2015.
How is it recorded?
In India, BARC(Broadcast Audience Research Council) records the TRP using Bar-O-Meters, which are installed on televisions in selected households. As per the research and data collected, the BARC has installed these meters in 44000 houses across the country.
Another way to record TRP is that Audio marks are used in video content prior to broadcast. These Audio watermarks are not audible to the human ear but by using dedicated hardware and software. All viewing details are recorded.
Why trp ratings are important?
1.On the basis of Audience Measurement data,trp ratings are assigned to various programs on television.
2.Television ratings in turn influence programs produced for the viewers.
3.Better trp ratings would promote a program while poor ratings will discourage a program.
4.Incorrect ratings will lead to the production of programmers which may not be really popular while good programmers may be left out.
5.Besides, TRPs are the main currency for advertisers to decide which channel to advertise only calculating the cost-per-rating-point(CPRP)
How can TRP be hacked?
Really a tricky and curiosity-based question right? Yes, Hacking is done and trp gets hacked, the competitors in the news and entertainment industry use it to grow up their business or media company. There is a way, that If HACKERS can find the houses where meter devices are installed. They can either bribe them to watch their channels or ask cable operators or multi-system operators to ensure their channel is available as the “landing page”, when the TV is switched on. Through this process, TRP scams are happening around the country.
For TRP’s, it does not matter what the entire country is watching, its totally based upon what the 44000 odd households are watching. Broadcasters target these houses to fudge actual viewership data.
In the 2018 consultation paper, TRAI said: “One of the biggest challenges has been the absence of any specific law through which the suspects involved in the panel infiltration “, but its efforts “to mitigate panel infiltration have been hampered due to absence of any legal framework”.
Recent Scam on TRP Manupulation
According to the recent scams that are reported in Mumbai, two Marathi channels including Fakt Marathi and Republic TV are on the probe of the suspect. Stating that the television advertisement rates are in cores and TRP decides who gets the biggest chunk of ads.
Mumbai Police commissioner Param Bir Singh said that they checked the rating scam, the people admitted that they were given money to watch the channel. There are chances of promoters and directors being involved in the case. On further investigation, Singh stated that the TRP contracts were given to a company named Hansa Research Group Pvt Ltd. It was found that the ex-employees of Hansa, a company which is working for BARC and were sharing data related to TRP with the channels and the TRPs were manipulated.
Singh said two employees have been arrested for being involved in the scam and have found 20 lakh in the account of the arrested one.
Meanwhile, on the other end, Arnab Goswami says that the accusations are fake and they will file a criminal defamation case against Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh. So the case is still under interrogation and everyone involved in the case is being highly interrogated.
