BARC temporarily suspends ratings of three news channels

Ratings body to stop publishing data for India News, TV9 Teleugu and V6 News due to suspected tampering with measurement process.

TV audience measurement service, BARC (Broadcast Audience Research Council of India) has pulled up three TV news channels - Hindi news channel India News and Telugu channels - TV9 Telugu and V6 News , for allegedly tampering with the ratings process and has suspended the publishing of their ratings for four weeks.

BARC's weekly update to it's subscribers says, "The ratings for India News, TV9 Telugu and V6 News shall not be published from week 46, 2016 to week 49, 2016 due to suspected malafide practices."

BARC India has declined to comment on the issue.

Industry sources say that BARC had witnessed a sudden spike in the viewership pattern of the three watermarked channels.

Sources add that ratings body then reportedly conducted a sting operation following the sudden change in viewership, and found that the above mentioned channels had made attempts of 'fixing' the households having BARC bar-o-meters.

The source also informs that BARC is further strengthening the vigilance to curb meter home infiltration which has been a teething issue since a very long time.