the entire trp system that underpins over rs 25000 crore worth of tv advertising is riddled with serious vulnerabilities and challenges a tiny and skewed sample of 44000 homes for a viewership of 84 crore outdated survey data regulatory changes and as the unfolding scandal has highlighted scope for manipulation through bribery toi takes a close looktelevision rating points are once again in the news after the mumbai police claimed it had busted a racket involving manipulation of trps by unscrupulous channels to fraudulently boost viewership data and mislead advertisers read alsotrp decides who wins the war for 84cr sets of eyeballsa guide to how the trp system works following mumbai polices investigation that revealed three news channels had manipulated trpstrp scam republic tv ceo coo appear before mumbai policetop republic tv officials appeared before the mumbai police on sunday for questioning in the ratings manipulation scam the crime branch of mumbai police had on saturday issued summons to republic tvs chief executive officer ceo vikas khanchandani and two chief operating officers coo formumbai man held in trp scam got over rs 1 crore in account since novemberinvestigations into the television rating points trp manipulation scam have shown that one of the four arrested accused bomapallirao mistry had in the last one year received a total of more than rs 1 crore in his bank account from fourfive people the mumbai police saidwhy trp is a big dealnew delhi mumbai police on thursday said it has busted a racket where three channels republic tv fakht marathi and box cinema manipulated television rating points trp a measure of viewership that drives advertising revenues and arrested four people we take a look at how trp works forwere a data sciencedriven body that deals in facts evidence says barcnew delhi with mumbai police launching an investigation into the alleged manipulation of trps by three private news channels the broadcast audience research council barc the key rating agency for tv broadcast networks said on saturday that barc ratings remained true to purpose and that thethe ongoing investigation has unearthed that five panel tv homes households where meters are installed to capture viewership were compromised to rig viewership of certain channelsthats correct just five homes what difference can five homes make in a country with a tv viewing universe of 836 million the answer a big one among smaller genres like english news niche categories like infotainment and even some regional channelstake the example of mumbai the financial capital of the country the city has over 2000 barometers installed by broadcast audience research council india which is around 5 of the 44000 meters that barc claims to have installed across the countryas per last weeks viewership of the english news genre the average reach of all the english news channels put together was 04 in mumbai and the average time spent per channel was around 15 minutes for the entire weekeffectively just eight panel homes watched these channels in mumbai last week