India Today has released a statement on the current TRP scam and it makes no sense.
India Today begins with claiming that certain section of media is ‘misreporting’ the reasons it has approached Bombay High Court against BARC. India Today claims it approached the Bombay High Court against a BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council) order for various reasons and patted itself on back for paying Rs 5 lakh as directed by the court on the stay order.
Earlier this month, OpIndia had reported that TV Today Network had failed to provide a satisfactory answer to the BARC Disciplinary Council (BDC) as to the “abnormal” and “inexplicable” increase in India Today’s TRPs. The BDC had passed an order imposing a fine of Rs 5 lakh on the media network for viewership malpractice. India Today Group had had later issued a statement admitting that it was fined by BARC for viewership malpractice. In its statement, the Group had accused BARC of leaking confidential hearings.
Now, tying itself in knots, India Today released a statement speaking about same things with explicit clarity that the group paid fine to the court and not to BARC over the order of BARC committee.
India Today claims it is unaware of being named in FIR by Hansa Report
Hansa Research, the company that manages the Bar-O-meters of BARC, had recently alleged that India Today was bribing households with the meters installed to watch their channel for at least 2 hours a day. Initially, in a hurried press conference, Mumbai Commissioner of Police Param Bir Singh had claimed that Republic TV was accused of manipulating TRP. However, a report by Hansa Research and the FIR filed based on it were accessed by Republic TV showed that India Today was named in the case, not Republic.
Now, India Today has claimed it is not aware of any such reports.