Arnab Goswami, judge, jury, executioner and undertaker of nightly public lynchings, stands accused in the court of sanctimony of doing what every news network in India has done before—bribing viewers to fix Television Rating Points (TRPs)—but the NDTV editor who first revealed how audience data was being manipulated suggests Goswami may well have toppled India’s biggest news channel, Aaj Tak, in the process, from which India Today’s flagship Hindi channel may well never recover.
“Arnab Goswami has made a breakthrough with Republic Bharat and Aaj Tak cannot catch up with it,” says Aunindyo Chakravarty, the former managing editor of NDTV’s Hindi and business channels.
“Aaj Tak has been such a massive brand since 2000. Everywhere you go it is Aaj Tak. It has 50% reach which I think is an underestimate. When a channel like that gets defeated, it can’t make a comeback. It has been defeated by distribution fixing, and it has no answer.”
As a 36-year-old journalist in 2008, Chakravarty, who now hosts a weekly show on the online portal News Click, had flagged the errors in Television Audience Measurement (TAM) data, which resulted in NDTV going to court in New York.
Those allegations resulted in TAM being replaced by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), a body comprising advertisers, advertising agencies and broadcasters, but the allegations of fixing against Republic TV—which Chakravarty says “doesn’t pass the smell test”—show that the system is far from fool proof.
“Rigging has been happening all the time in the market. Everyone has done it out there. Republic TV has gone ahead of others, using the techniques that others have used in the past. Anyone can do what Arnab is doing. All they lack is a thick skin.
“Republic doesn’t need to fix. If it is fixing at all, it is doing so to balance out what others are doing. If Arnab Goswami is rigging, he is counter-rigging because someone else is rigging.
“News channels know that they can’t beat Republic TV. It is politically protected. Its distribution is never going to be a problem. And its content is what viewers will watch even without knowing.
“Republic Bharat has got most of its ratings from Zee News. It has taken Zee News, put it on steroids, and brought it out on the streets. Even if no one is rigging anything, the ratings reflects the public sphere and public culture of today.
“If Arnab is doing well, and if ratings can be fixed to show Arnab is doing well, everyone is under pressure to do the same thing. By rigging ratings, by blocking transmission, you can turn a media house into a ‘Godi’ media house.
“Even if all rigging is removed, even then Arnab will be No.1. It is his content that is oriented towards revenue, not his ratings. He doesn’t need ratings to get money.”
Listen to the full podcast with Aunindyo Chakravarty
How audiences are measured
“There are 40,000 meters covering about 170,000 people. A leading Hindi channel will be watched by 9,000-9,500 sample viewers. On the basis of that, we are projecting for 84 crore people in 20 crore households. The number of meters is not the issue. Government surveys depend on similar sample size.”
TV ratings ain’t for journalists
“People think TRPs are the real number of people watching a channel. Not true. Ratings are to be used by advertisers. If journalists start looking at ratings and think people are watching them, it reflects a basic problem in the system. Ratings should not be given to channels. It should only be given to advertisers.”
Entertainment versus news
“Over a 13-week period, the leading general entertainment channel (GEC) will be watched by those in metered homes for about an hour a day. Hindi news is watched for about 15-16 minutes, even a lot of that would be entertainment.”
“Historically, proper news is watched no more than 4-5 minutes a day. Most people watch headlines and move on. There is no flipping between news channels, people watch their channel and move to entertainment channels.
“We say there is so much choice, but the truth there is no choice. You will see the same news in every channel presented in exactly the same manner. Ratings creates homogeneity of content.”
How ratings can be fixed
“If a Hindi general entertainment channel with a 20% market share rigs 50 homes out of 40,000 metered homes—approximately 200-210 people—its market share will go to 21.5%. For a Hindi news channel, then 20% will go up to 26%.
“If an English news channel with 20% market share rigs 50 homes for 5 hours a day, its market share will go to 80%. If you just rig 10 homes for 5 hours per day, it will go up to 50%. If you rig 10 homes for 3 hours per day, it will go up to 35%.
“The bigger concern is if fixing is taking place at the level of distribution. When a channel is switched off or its audio goes off, viewers think that it is the channel’s transmission that has a problem. But someone is blocking it. You don’t have to do it all over India but in specific markets.”
It’s the economy, stupid
“The economy has done so badly that news channels don’t make money. They barely cover their costs. The revenues of news channels has hardly gone up in last 10 years. How do you expect channels to operate? They have no option but to do this. If channels were doing well, they wouldn’t have to bother about ratings.”
Democracy’s last gasp
“If TV news is an institution, its subversion is very easy in an undemocratic environment, in a populist environment, and that is what is happening right now and Arnab is making the most of it. That atmosphere will only change if a section of India’s big business, feels that things need to change, democracy has to come back.”
Also read: Arnab Goswami will be No.1 even if all rigging is removed
Mr Justice Arnab Goswami gets a taste of his own medicine
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"When a channel like 'Aaj Tak' gets defeated by 'Republic', it can’t make a comeback"