Kerala TRP scam case: Rs 100 crore claim overblown; industry sees no impact on ratings

New Delhi: BARC India’s first public response to the alleged Kerala TRP scam case has come with a clear caution to all stakeholders, including the media: avoid “unverified or speculatory claims” while an independent forensic audit is underway.

Read against that backdrop, industry executives say the figure of Rs 100 crore being informally floated as the “size” of the alleged scam is both misleading and mathematically implausible.

According to senior media planners and broadcasters, the entire Malayalam news advertising market is estimated at only Rs 600–700 crore a year. This compares with roughly Rs 5,000 crore for the overall television news genre, including national and regional news.

Within that Malayalam news pie, industry veterans say the channel at the centre of the current allegations, Reporter TV, simply does not command that scale of business.

Also read: Exclusive: BMI analysis links Kerala TRP scam to Reporter TV

“Realistically, Reporter TV would not be doing more than around Rs 100 crore in annual revenues,” one senior industry veteran told BestMediaInfo.com.

“This figure may have been blown out of proportion for the attention of the media and the government. This is, of course, a highly exaggerated and unbelievable figure,” the person said, referring to the Rs 100-crore number being casually attached to the alleged scam.

The executive stressed that the quantum should not distract from the core issue.

“Any amount of fraud is fraud,” the veteran said. “Whether it is Rs 10 crore or Rs 50 crore, if ratings are being tampered with, it has to be investigated and fixed.”

Nowhere near 2020 TRP shocker

At the same time, the industry source underlined that the present case is very different in scale and optics from the 2020 TRP controversy that forced BARC India to suspend ratings for news channels.

“If you compare this with the 2020 case, the allegations were against a prominent national news channel owned by a high-profile journalist and the former BARC CEO,” the person said.

“That projected the entire rating agency as compromised, leading to the TRP suspension.”

Also read: Who is BARC employee Premnath, accused in the fresh Kerala TRP scam case?

“In the current allegations, it is a local channel and a BARC employee. Involvement of an employee doesn’t corrupt the whole organisation,” the veteran added.

According to the person, every ratings system is designed with the assumption that some individual may try to game it at some point, and the question is how quickly those attempts are detected and acted upon.

“If the fraud has taken place, there must be someone involved. There have been several incidents in the past where BARC’s own vigilance team helped law enforcement agencies catch people involved in matters such as meter fixing,” the executive said.

BARC urges restraint, industry sees no grounds for fresh suspension

In its statement on Thursday, BARC India said it had “immediately engaged a reputed independent agency” to conduct a comprehensive forensic audit into the allegations raised by Malayalam channel Twentyfour News against a BARC employee.

The ratings body also urged “all parties, including the media, to refrain from making any unverified or speculatory claims regarding the situation” while the audit is in progress, and reiterated its commitment to “the highest standards of integrity and accountability” towards stakeholders.

The industry veteran quoted above said there is, at this stage, no basis to talk of another blanket suspension of ratings.

“This was the first such case in 2020,” the person said. “Many of us were of the view that the case had a political angle attached to it. And the government had to step in to save its face.”

“The lawmakers and the stakeholders have lived that era, matured and moved on,” the person added. “The current case, at best, will expedite the government’s efforts to amend the TV Rating Guidelines.”