'Times Now's Viewership Numbers Deliberately Reduced To Benefit A Newly Launched Channel' : Bennett Coleman Serves Legal Notice On BARC

Bennet Coleman and Company has sent a legal notice to the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) alleging illegal and fraudulent viewership data manipulation, and tampering of Television Rating Points (TRP) of Times Now, and has sought for a compensation of more than 400 crores for the same.

It is alleged that the TRP ratings of Times Now were deliberately manipulated from 2017 onwards to give benefit to a "newly launched channel"(hinting at Republic TV).

"Times Now's viewership numbers were deliberately and in a concerted manner, reduced for giving benefit to the newly launched Channel, which has considerably and adversely impacted the revenue, growth, reputation, goodwill and image of Times Now channel and the Times Group at the national and international level", the notice alleges.

The legal notice places reliance on external forensic audit reports and also the findings of the Mumbai Police chargesheet in the TRP scam case(in which Republic TV employees are named as accused).  Partho Dasgpupta, who was the CEO of BARC from 2013 to 2019, is presently under custody in the TRP scam case since

Stating that Times Now has been operating in India for over 15 years and is highly popular amongst its viewers and advertisers due to "good programming content, packaging and provision of timely news updates with a very wide reach throughout the country with honest and fearless reporting", the notice alleges that BARC has been involved in "fraudulent and dishonest activities" with the intention to cause "financial and reputational loss" to Times Now and thereby ensue "deliberate illegal enrichment to BARC and their co-conspirators along with other benefiting parties".

The notice goes on to contend that the subject matter does not only concern corrupt manipulations and rigging of TRP/Viewership Data in lieu of illegal gratification from particular channels, but also reveals a "larger, deep-rooted conspiracy to fraudulently and dishonestly inflate the valuation and advertisement revenues of the beneficiary channel(s)/subscriber(s)".

"BARC, in connivance with the beneficiary channel(s)/subscriber(s) has perpetrated a systematic fraud to deceive and dishonestly induce our Clients, advertisers, viewers, stakeholders and investors into believing that the beneficiary channel is the most watched English News TV channel in the country, whereas in reality as per genuine data available with BARC, the most watched English News TV Channel was that of our Clients i.e. Times Now".

By running a nefarious scheme, the notice alleges, BARC ruptured genuine competition by causing unjust enrichment to the beneficiary channel, itself and its officials. Further, even when the fraudulent activities were exposed via a Forensic Audit Report dated 24.07.2020, no disciplinary action was taken and these activities were not reported to any investigating authority by BARC.

"Our Clients state that given BARC's unique role as an organization functioning under the aegis of the MIB and TRAI, it is of paramount importance that BARC remains absolutely neutral, unbiased and impartial".

The notice further states that the Forensic Report sheds a light on how BARC officials ensured that Times Now's numbers "were kept under constant scanner to control and reduce its viewership and BARC has taken every step/action to continuously and deliberately reduce Times Now's TRP numbers for extending help to the other competing channel launched in 2017".

It has also been contended that BARC has blatantly violated its statutory and contractual obligations, and that there has been deliberate omission and inaction of BARC to maintain a fair and level-playing field for its subscribers as covenanted under the End User License Agreements and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting guidelines.

The notice alleges that the fraudulent activities of BARC have resulted in the violation of the fundamental rights guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) and (g) of the Constitution of India and have also negatively effected the revenue of Times with a total revenue loss of Rs. 430 crores, along with significant loss to the goodwill, brand value, reputation and loss of future profits.

"…our Clients state that BARC is not only liable for civil action to be initiated against it but is also squarely liable to be prosecuted for serious cognizable criminal offences under sections 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 406 (Punishment for criminal breach of trust), 409 (Criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent), 465 (Punishment for forgery), 467 (Forgery of valuable security, will, etc.), 468 (Forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (Using as genuine a forged document or electronic record), 201 (Causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender), 204 (Destruction of document or electronic record to prevent its production as evidence), 212 (Harbouring Offender), 120(B) (Punishment of criminal conspiracy) and 34 (Common Intention) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860."

In light of the above, the notice seeks, amongst other things, a compensation of Rs. 431 crores, plus license fees of Rs. 21.83 crores with interest @ 18% p.a., and a Press Statement on BARC's website clarifying that the Times Now was the number one channel in English News Genre from 2017-2019 as well as the publicization of the same.

Republic TV has filed a criminal defamation case against Times Now over a debate hosted by Navika Kumar against Arnab Goswami in the wake of the leak of the alleged chats between him and former BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta.