Over 37 complaints of TRP manipulation, but no action taken by BARC

Hansa Research says it sacked its employees involved in the scam

A report of an internal investigation by Hansa Research in consultation with Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has revealed that manipulation of TRP has been going on for the past five years on a national level, even before the Mumbai police unearthed the scam this year. Hansa received nearly 40 complaints over the past five years and reported nine of them to the police, and took action in the rest. But, the report does not mention if they tried to find the channels involved.

The report is part of the charge sheet filed by the Mumbai Crime Branch in the Television Rating Points (TRP) scam case. The city police had sought Hansa's report on the probe against complaints received from 2015 to October 2020 to understand their mechanism in dealing with such complaints and action being taken.

Praveen Nijhara, CEO, Hansa Research

As per its report, Hansa received 37 complaints from the cities like, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Nagpur, Ludhiana, Lucknow, Jaipur, Patna, Indore, Guwahati. Six of them were from Mumbai. Hansa reported all of them to BARC and terminated its employees involved in the scam. It reported nine of them to the police in respective cities, including two in Mumbai.

RMs, SRMs terminated

Among the employees, Hansa Research removed its Relationship Managers (RM) and Senior Relationship Managers (SRM). While some were found to have bribed households where bar-o-meters were being installed by them to watch specific channels, in some cases, they shared confidential information with a third party. In cases of the involvement of a third party [person], Hansa sent legal notices as the company could only take action against its staff. The third party included people who either tried to influence Hansa employees for asked households to watch specific channels.
However, the report didn't mention if action was taken against any TV channel or if they ever tried to find out the channel(s) that approached their employees through a third person for manipulation of TRP. It also does not mention if Hansa conducted a detailed probe to unearth the entire syndicate of TRP manipulation by TV channels.

Identifying abnormalities

The chargesheet mentions the internal investigation process of the Hansa Research. BARC as per their internal procedure, identifies abnormal viewing in panel households and informs Hansa that they would like to meet their RM who manages their panel household. Accordingly, a meeting is arranged between the RM, BARC vigilance team, Metrology Data Private Limited's vigilance council and Hansa operations manager. At the meeting, the RM is questioned and if he confesses to have taken bribe for TRP manipulation then further details are collected along with his confessional statement.

Hansa also keeps tabs on their RMs to identify if they are purchasing something expensive, like a mobile phone or a wrist watch. If they suspect something fishy, they check if he is involved in any fraudulent activities.

"Hansa Research has zero tolerance to any malpractice within the company. If an employee is found to be involved in misconduct of any kind, action is taken immediately against her/him. Hansa Research is a supplier to and has a contract with BARC. The onus of taking any further action with the TV channels would lie entirely with BARC as they are the TRP providing company for channels," said Praveen Nijhara, CEO, Hansa Research.

The BARC refused to comment.

09
No. of complaints Hansa reported to police across nation

6
No. of complaints Hansa received from Mumbai

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