TRP is known as Television Rating Point. It is the tool that tells us which channel and the program are viewed most or it indicates the popularity of a TV channel or a program. It shows how many times people are watching a channel or a particular program. This could be for an hour, a day, or even a week; India follows the international standard of one minute. The data is usually made public every week. 

WHY DO CHANNELS CHASE TRPs?

TRP is a big deal for television channels as it is a key factor in deciding their revenue. The higher a channels’ TRP, the more advertisement it will get, subsequently increasing their revenue scale. The increase or decrease in TRP of any program directly affects the income of the TV channel on which the program is coming. TRP rate of any channel or program depends upon the program that is displayed. It can be understood that when a film star arrives in a program for the promotion of his movie, the TRP of that program increases automatically because people like to see that film star more. It’s all about money – a show with higher TRPs has a bigger audience, so advertisers are willing to pay more to advertise on it. 

HOW TRPs ARE MEASURED?  

Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) formed in 2014, is the world’s largest television audience measurement service. After its joint venture with TAM, it is now the only rating body for the broadcasting sector in the country. BARC installs a device called “people meter” at households participating in its survey. The “people meter” (BAR-O-meters) tracks the shows being watched by listening for watermarks embedded in their audio. The BARC remote has buttons assigned to each member of the household. This keeps a track of who is watching a show. 45,000 households spread across the county are surveyed by BARC to estimate the viewing habits of about 20 crore TV households or roughly 84 crore viewers. Every Thursday, BARC releases data comparing the viewership of different channels and programs, broken down by audience demographics – age, education, income, etc. The number of viewers a show has and the time spent watching it from the basis for all TV channels buying and selling in the country and the advertising revenue every channel gets.

WHAT IS TRP SCAM? 

Television Rating Points (TRPs) have been a much debated issue in India since the present system of TRPs is riddled with several maladies such as small sample size which is not representative, lack of transparency, lack of reliability and credibility of data etc. Shortcomings in the present rating system have been highlighted by key stakeholders that include individuals, consumer groups, government, broadcasters, advertisers, and advertising agencies etc. 

In India, around 45,000 meters known as people meter are attached to TV sets. These give data on viewership patterns and behavior. The Modus Operandi is like this- The homes where meters are installed are supposed to be secret but bribes are given to staffers to identify the homes where meters are installed. So TV channels as well as private serial program producers approach these homes and bribe them to switch on the channels or programs. It is a known secret that these homes will be given another TV set by these bribe givers to watch programs as they wish with a condition that they have to always switch on the TV  and technically view the bribed channels or programs where the meter is attached. So in effect, these homes get another TV free also apart from the monthly bribes to switch on the meter attached TV set. These viewers are also bribed with the shopping coupons and many other gifts. 

Recently, Mumbai Police registered a case on the TRP scam the well-kept secret of Indian TV channels in manipulating the viewership data is now out in the public domain added with the mudslinging of TV Channels and anchors each other. Mumbai Police Commissioner said in an interview – Arnab Goswami’s Republic TV Channel is only the tip of the iceberg in the Indian TV Channel industry amounting to Rs.70, 000 crores advertisement spending annually. In many homes the people were bribed with Rs. 400-500 a month to keep specific channels switched on even if they did not watch it. The manipulation became clear when it emerged that non-English speaking poor households were watching English news channels. Hansa Research Group Private Limited has named India Today, Marathi channels and other channels for ‘increasing ratings’. Hansa Research Group Private Limited is the company responsible for installing Bar-O-meter. 

On this, Union minister for information and broadcasting Prakash Javadekar said the present system of Television Rating Point or TRP-oriented programs “needs a rethink” where some other politicians said that they do not wish to get into TRP game.

HOW TO STOP THIS FRAUD?

• Dish TV companies like Tata Sky and Airtel can take responsibility of data of viewership directly from their central control room & the government should authorize these companies to collect data through legislation.
• The government should take action against fake people meter connected to a few TV sets. 
• I & B ministry and TRAI must sit together to evolve a new scientific system to stop TRP scam.
• News provoking news for TRP should be stop (fake journalism). 
• There should be more agencies in this field to ensure curbing of monopoly by BARC.

CONCLUSION

If you go back to the pre-TV era, at least in Hindi, Manohar Kahaaniyaan and Nutan Kahaaniyaan would always have more readership than weeklies like Saptahik Hindustan. They would always be considered separate from news. We now have a peculiar situation in which news channels in their hunger of TRP rates are competing with TV serials by dramatizing news, focusing on crime and scandals and showing pulp content.  There used to be paid news and fake news and now TRP is journalism. It is an open secret that malpractices and bribing exist in the field to get good TRPs. TRP ratings of certain programs and certain channels gave the impression that some sort of hyping was happening in the ratings. In the industry, there are always allegations that companies producing Mega-serials will go to any extent to get good TRPs and use clever ways to hype up the TRP numbers.  Given the above circumstances, the Government and TRAI must intervene to rectify the tweaked “Policy Guidelines for Television Rating Agencies in India”. The Policy Guidelines envisages all sorts of regulations to streamline the TV rating business in India by ensuring independence to the rating agencies for TV programs.  It is high time the Government rectified the manipulated policy guidelines and stops this organized loot and manipulation by the TV channel giants who are fooling people by giving false Television Ratings to their own members and ensure that a professional independent television rating agency is created in India.