BARC India has issued statement after the arrest of its ex-employees.

 It must be mentioned that on Thursday police arrested Partho Dasgupta, the former CEO of TV ratings agency BARC, in connection with the TRP scam case. Few days back police had also arrested the former COO of the agency - Romil Ramgarhia.

 

“The development related to the two ex-employees of BARC India is a part of an ongoing investigation for which BARC management continues to extend its support and cooperation to the law enforcement agencies. It would consequently be inappropriate for BARC to comment any further at this stage”, it stated.

The Mumbai Crime Branch in its press conference said that the audit report of BARC confirms that the organisation’s ex-employees did manipulate the TRPs. Joint Commissioner of Police (crime) Milind Bharambe said that the forensic audit from BARC was received last week.

The audit was performed reportedly after the new management took over in January this year, following complaints from the whistleblower. Bharambe said that the report, from May 2017 to November 2019, shows that TRPs of English and Telugu news channels had been tampered with.

 

The number one news channel at that time, thereafter, was pushed to the second spot.   Forensic auditors appointed by BARC concluded that the manipulation was deliberate. Three methods – outlier, meta-rules and channel audience control – were used to fudge the TRP for the accused channel.

On the 50th week of COTT MX media player continues to be the top platform with 28.72 Million unique viewers translating to a reach of 5%. Though the bar has come down to 5 % from 6.19% which was on week 49, the Mx video player still is the top OTT platform. This week the 2nd place was taken by VOOT with 4.5%. Sony liv came in 3rd place with 3.87%, as it has come up with a new series released recently. Followed by ZEE5 by 3.12 and Disney plus HotStar by 1.91%.

KOLKATA: The government has finally clarified the uncertainties in DTH licensing norms. According to new guidelines, DTH licenses will now be issued for a period of 20 years. Although the latest move may not be game changing for the operators, it has definitely brought a sense of positivity to the sector.

“We are grateful to Shri Javadekar for resolving the long standing impasse on the DTH License policy which will provide certainty to the sector. We look forward to a level playing field via parity of Licence Fee with Cable TV which too is Licensed by MIB and follows the same prices and margins as regulated by TRAI’s NTO,” Tata Sky MD& CEO Harit Nagpal said.

MUMBAI: India has become a fiercely contested territory for major streaming players as they look to drive sub-growth outside the maturing North American and western European markets.  

BBC Studios, from the stable of the British public service broadcaster, recently unveiled a new content catalogue deal with new kid on the OTT block, Lionsgate Play. Under the agreement, five of BBC Studios' scripted dramas have been selected for the streaming service, with the shows subtitled into multiple regional Indian languages. The new deal, while bolstering the premium Lionsgate Play content portfolio, is tweaked to suit the tastes of the vastly diverse Indian audiences.

MUMBAI: Consumers’ viewing habits are changing, and it’s landed a clear impact on the overall broadcast sector. Despite the challenges posed by the Covid2019 pandemic and other setbacks, broadcasters are seeing virtue in launching new channels. Even during the lockdown, people turned to television to keep themselves engaged and entertained, with BARC reporting a 43 per cent increase in India's TV viewership during this period, compared to the pre-Covid2019 figures.

The rise in TV consumption signifies viewers’ appetite for content – and clearly, the time is ripe to green-flag new channels catering to different tastes and smaller sub-segments across geographies. Let’s have a look at all the new channels that arrived on the idiot box in 2020.

Colors Marathi stayed true to its brand ethos of ‘Navi Umed, Navi Bharari’ by offering culturally rooted content to its viewers in the lockdown year of 2020. The Marathi general entertainment channel from Viacom18 has announced the launch of two new shows. 

‘Jai Jai Swami Samarth’, a period drama presenting the life story of Swami Samarth, will go on air from December 28, Monday to Saturday, at 9:30 pm. The show will showcase theories, philosophies and lesser-known life stories of Swami Samarth that hold true even today and continue to be the guiding light.

MUMBAI: From the start of daily soaps in 2000, Hindi GEC fiction haswitnessed multiple ‘eras’: From the now-notorious saas-bahu dramas in the first decade, to shows addressing societal evils and women empowerment,tofamily-based love stories that brought in the younger viewers. With each passing era, characters in the Hindi GEC category havebecome smarter, more fashionable and more progressive in their outlook. What’s interesting, however, is that characters who have managed to retain long-term popularity among the audience have one aspect common to their personalities: they are generally over-indexed on the personality dimension ‘sincerity’.

NEW DELHI: How many of you know about the LGBTQ community? This was the first and the basic question put  Indiantelevision.com founder and editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari during the session titled ‘Finding the Rainbow in the Indian Creative Industry.’ Panellists included filmmaker Ram Kamal Mukherjee, EORTV media executive director Kaushik Izardar, actor Hemant Kher, and renowned entrepreneur, pianist, songwriter and musician Shayan Italia.

Mukherjee opened the session by stating that they stand for free and equal rights for everybody. “They are not they and us, and it’s the beginning of the conversation. We should stop discriminating,” he said.

Hungama, from Disney India Kids Network, known for engaging kids with entertaining content, will launch a new show, Supa Strikas, on December 21. It will air from Monday to Thursday at 7.30pm.

The channel will launch Supa Strikas for the first time on Indian television. With a narrative that follows a leading football team as they journey across the globe and outer space, the series will take the young viewers behind the scenes at the world's greatest soccer club who are on a quest to win the prized Super League trophy.

“Hungama, through the shows and characters, has always celebrated the spirit of childhood; capturing the child’s imagination, playfulness and the zest to be adventurous. Kids have loved the series that we bring on Hungama and the consistent performance of the channel, along with the success of all our shows, is a testament to its success and popularity. Our newest show Supa Strikas will be a perfect addition to the channel bringing in elements of fun, adventure, sportsmanship and friendship,” said a Disney Kids Network spokesperson.