On September 29, media house Times Now responded to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) charge sheet revelations in the TRP scam. In its response, the media house shared a ‘clean chit’ given by BARC in 2017. In the tweet shared by Times Now, they said, “Nothing admitted by BARC. BARC’s clean chit letter to TIMES NOW. Take a look.”
In the letter dated December 26, 2017, BARC said that a show cause notice was issued on November 21, 2017, for breach by Bennett Coleman & Company Limited (BCCL is the parent company of Times Now) of the End User License Agreement that was signed between BCCL and Broadcast Audience Research Council (“BARC”).
The letter mentioned that based on the explanation provided by Times Now in the replies to the show cause notice regarding the abnormal increase in viewership raw data of the channel, BARC decided not to initiate any action against the channel. It added, “However, kindly note that in the event any further abnormal increase is observed in the viewership in the raw data of the Channel, we may proceed to initiate appropriate proceedings in terms of the EULA.”
In further discussion with the channel’s MD and CEO MK Anand, Times Now’s Editorial Director and Editor-in-Chief Rahul Shivshankar, they talked about the possible reason behind the “unusual spike”. Anand said during that period, they were doing some promotions, and because of that, there was a spike in the viewership. The panel of the Times Now team further claimed that BARC’s then-management tried to blackmail Times Now using forged data and “made-up video”.
In its statement, Times Now said, “As far as the spike shown in ratings on certain days in certain markets is concerned, we have already clarified the reasons for the same in our meetings. Most of the purported abnormalities can be explained by the use of Landing pages (LP) in such markets, and considering that LPs are the major marketing boost, they cannot really be referred to be abnormal in the real sense.”
They further added, “About the videos, we have clarified that we neither have any knowledge nor any involvement in any such unscrupulous activity. In fact, this clearly points to the involvement of some malicious party/ entity who is trying to spoil our reputation. In the past, we have been the victim of reduced channel share and, thinking that on-ground panel tampering by certain players may be the reason for the same, have shared our concerns with your agency where the ratings have shown abnormality/unprecedented spikes from time to time.”
Anand further questions where in ED report Times Now was implicated. He said, “Just because the channel’s name has been taken in the report for reference to certain vigilance committee show cause notice does not mean that investigation led to anything.
Rahul Ravishankar claimed they had “strong reasons to believe that this is a motivated & malicious act of certain organizations to tarnish the image of our channel TIMES NOW”.
What the ED charge sheet said about Times Now and TRP manipulation
OpIndia checked the charge sheet submitted by the ED in the matter. The PMLA investigation into the forensic report that was made on the instruction of BARC has revealed some troubling details. ED in its conclusions about the forensic report, that had apparently implicated Republic TV, says, “From the above discussion and table, it becomes apparent that the allegations made in the report are superficial and based on the analysis of limited aspects. Various other aspects such as the response of the Key Management Persons, video recording regarding allurement to three Households & show cause to Times Now, software developed by BARC to counter the TRP due to Landing Page, Vigilance Complaints, impact from surveying companies such as M/s Chrome were not taken into account while preparing the report”.
The charge sheet says there are two video recordings of two households that point towards the fact that Times Now had paid them to watch their channel. “A Show Cause was also issued to Times Now in this regard. This indicates certain irregularities vis a vis Times Now, which needs to be properly investigated”, it said.
“From the plain reading of these showcase notices and replies therein, it is apparent that there were three video clips of panel households wherein the panel households were supposedly indicating malpractices in viewing Times Now. There was further raw data analysis which showed an abnormal increasing average time spend watching Times Now vis-a-vis other English News Channels. The time period of this alleged maleficence on part of Times Now coincides with the period taken in the BARC audit report. In this regard, it may also be added here that viewership of English News Channel is very limited and even few compromised Households can increase TRP manifolds”, it says.
Further, the charge sheet says, “Further, BARC has also reported that they had received several complaints regarding certain Households that they are being paid money for watching Times Now channel and it is learnt that BARC vigilance team recorded videos of these Households stating that they are being paid for watching Times Now Channel. Further, BARC was requested to provide the said video through mails, however, the same has not been provided yet. Further investigation in this regard is under progress”.
Interestingly, the charge sheet alludes to the statement issued to ED by Dharamveer Mahecha (Retired Lt. Col.), Head-Vigilance and Investigations of BARC. On being asked about the investigation, he said that there were vigilance inputs regarding Times Now manipulating TRPs and thus, an investigation was carried out. The field investigation confirmed that Times Now had paid certain households to watch their channel.
The charge sheet then says, “On 28.11.2017, representatives from the channel visited BARC office, where they were shown the Times Now data Analysis (raw data) reflecting a spike in the viewership in week 15 to week 16 and week 25-26, 2017 while indexing the channel to other English News Channels, Week 34 to 39, 2017 in Mumbai, week 31 to 39, 2017 in Madhya Pradesh/Chhattisgarh, week 30 to 40, 2017 in UP/Uttarakhand. The channel representatives were also shown videos of three-panel homes, where the household alleged that certain individuals approached them and asked them to watch Times Now. He further stated that Shri Romil Ramgarhia, then COO of BARC was aware of the above vigilance proceedings on Times Now”.
the charge sheet says that in November 2017, Times Network sent their second response to these charges after being shown the videos of their manipulation. In December, they sent another response saying that they were not involved in the manipulation of TRP. Interestingly, there is no further information available on this. It is clear that BARC had evidence of TRP manipulation, but no information is available as to what steps were taken by BARC after Times Now said they were not involved in manipulation, despite being faced with video and data evidence.
Interestingly, when BARC got ACPCL to conduct a forensic audit, the ACPCL ex-founder and Managing Director told ED that they were not given the information regarding the vigilance inputs regarding Times Now’s manipulation of data or the video evidence that BARC had in its possession. “On being shown the inputs/documents relied upon in vigilance proceedings conducted against Times Now during 2017 and asked whether the said inputs related to vigilance proceeding was shared with him during the forensic audit. he stated that he was not shared with any specific inputs to vigilance proceedings against Times Now for the audit period”, the charge sheet says.
It is to be noted that ED has asked BARC to produce the video evidence in its possession against Times Now, however, the same has not been furnished yet. The ED says that investigation in this matter is on, therefore proving that Times Now is now under ED investigation as far as the TRP case is concerned.
