A former employee with Hansa Market Research Pvt Ltd (Hansa), Vinay Tripathi, has been arrested in the TRP racket case, media reports have said.

The fifth arrest in the case was made in UP. Tripathi is said to have instructed another accused who has already been arrested.

 

The bank accounts of Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema and its owners have been frozen, reports said.

KOLKATA: The Covid2019 crisis struck India in March and the entertainment industry came to a standstill. While TV production resumed in July, shooting for film and original content remained on pause for a lot longer. The industry, which lost six months of valuable production time, is slowly limping back to sets and studios.

More people may have switched to over-the-top (OTT) platforms during the pandemic, but on the flip side, it has inflated the audience’s appetite for content. These streaming services have maintained a steady click of new releases so far but the constrain of shooting large scale projects is a major concern.

All eyes are now on India’s top media agencies if they will join hands to put a stop to unethical practices being adopted by news channels to increase viewership by tampering with BARC meters or by broadcasting toxic and hateful content.

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Sources across multiple stakeholders, including broadcasters and media agencies, told BestMediaInfo.com that a discussion is already on to drop those news channels from the media plan that have been involved in unethical practices, be it in terms of business operations or editorial programming. A decision is likely to be taken soon.

New Delhi: The News Broadcasting Standards Authority (NBSA) has directed leading news channels to air an apology for insensitive reporting on Sushant Singh Rajput’s death.

NBSA has fined a news channel with Rs 1 lakh for telecasting fake tweets related to actor Sushant Singh Rajput, Live Law reported last Thursday.

The self-governing authority also directed broadcasters Zee News, India TV, AajTak and News 24 to air an apology on their channels for violation of ethics in TV coverage of the case and for affecting the dignity of the deceased.

New Delhi: Sony BBC Earth, India’s most loved factual entertainment channel, recently concluded another edition of its photography based digital IP ‘Earth in Focus’ but this time, it was bigger and better. While the channel is home to spectacular visuals, moments and stories captured by the world’s foremost filmmakers, with ‘Earth in Focus’, Sony BBC Earth decided to celebrate the beauty of the world through the eyes of its audience. The initiative is a great platform for every photography enthusiast who has the passion and a keen eye to capture moments in time, with or without professional skills or equipment.

The channel roped in Amoghavarsha JS – an award-winning photographer and natural history filmmaker with over 15 years of experience and global accolades to his credit – as the expert judge and announced the contest on World Photography Day (19th August). With a relatable theme of ‘Freedom in Focus’, the month-long contest kickstarted on 30th August where the channel invited photography enthusiasts to capture their take on freedom considering the subcategories of Nature, People and Hobbies.

Television business means big money. Thousands of crores are spent on advertising every year as this is only medium that reaches both India and Bharat. For instance, the FMCG sector spent over Rs 1,860 crore on TV advertisements in 2019. Now with the Mumbai police investigating a TRP buying racket, the spotlight is on the sanctity of the entire investment.

Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India, the only television audience measurement body in the country, has been in the news this year for many reasons, unfortunately most of them unwanted controversies. Whether it was the landing page issue, TV 9’s "unusual" rise in ratings or the most recent TRP scam, there have been several occasions this year when BARC found itself in a tight spot.

In the last few days since the Mumbai police made arrests in the TRP scam and named a national news channel along with two regional channels for allegedly tampering with BARC data, questions are being asked on the ratings agency's effectiveness to measure television viewership accurately. And this is not the first time in this year that BARC had to face these questions.

On the ongoing controversy around TRPs, Barc India CEO Sunil Lulla has written to BARC India’s subscribers, saying that as a data science driven joint industry body, BARC deals only with facts and evidence.

At the beginning of letter itself, Lulla has shared six key facts with the subscribers.

 

According to the letter, a copy of which has been accessed by e4m, the Barc CEO says:

“BARC India has authorized Meterology Data Pvt. Ltd. (MDL), which is a subsidiary and functions at arm’s length, to undertake panel home operations through its authorized vendors. One of such authorized vendor is Hansa Market Research Private Limited (Complainant in the FIR filed at Kandivali, Mumbai) who is authorized to undertake the Panel Home installation, maintenance, and operations in Mumbai on behalf of MDL under an agreement with strict confidentiality. 

Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd (ZEEL)’s Hindi movie channel &Pictures is here with a refreshed brand ideology of ‘On Nahi, Full On’. The channel has based its new, revamped ideology based on an insight among the youth: "why stop myself from immersing fully in what I do?" 

After it's launch in 2013, this is the first time the channel has refreshed not just it's brand ideology but also its logo. Since its launch in 2013, &Pictures has been catering to an audience with a youthful mindset with an array of content and characters that reflect their life choices and beliefs. Retaining its progressive yet rooted brand DNA, the channel has levelled up its energetic and quirky vibe that promises to leave viewers refreshed with a full-on experience. 

The unprecedented public health crisis has set in motion the wheels of change as the world heads towards the road to recovery. India promises to play an integral role as the global economy nears a reset in its scale of operations. In a bid to explore the myriad untapped opportunities for businesses in India, CNBC-TV18, India’s leading English business news channel and Standard Chartered Bank is all set to virtually host the 2nd edition of ‘Leadership Collective: India - an Investment Magnet’ on 13th October 2020, 5 pm onwards.

Regarded as the last leg of this year’s India Business Leader Awards, the virtual event revolves around harnessing newer avenues that will aid the country in emerging as the most favorable investment destination. The event aims to dive deep into the economic policies that can be implemented to achieve near and long-term growth for various sectors and businesses.