The Broadcast Audience Research Council India (BARC) has named Nakul Chopra as the new CEO as Sunil Lulla has resigned his remit to pursue his ambition as an entrepreneur. The appointment of Chopra comes at a time when the controversy related to the fake TRP scam has tarnished the image of the joint-industry body.
“BARC has not been able to assure us of its ability to control and bring to book unscrupulous elements who have apparently infiltrated their systems and tampered our channel’s viewership numbers in the last few years as per their own Audit Report,” said MK Anand, MD & CEO, Times Network, while answering Medinews4u’s query on the appointment of new BARC CEO.
“Our current ongoing efforts to resolve this have been unsuccessful. Since Nakul has been associated with BARC as its Board member and Chairman during this same period, we hope his intimate knowledge of the events and internal workings, his patience, and perseverance will be committed to creating a transparent system that everyone can trust sooner. We wish Nakul the best and look forward to resolving outstanding issues,” he added.
Earlier this year, Times Network sent a legal notice to BARC. The broadcaster has also asked for a compensation of Rs 431 crore, which has been lost in ad revenue due to alleged fake TRP manipulation of TV ratings by BARC.
The broadcaster has asked BARC to refund Rs 21.83 crore of the license fees the network had paid to BARC as of December 2020, along with an 18% interest.
Apart from that, Times Network has accused BARC of a material breach of the end-user license agreements (EULAs) on account of “illegal and fraudulent” viewership manipulation and “tampering” of television audience measurement and television rating points (TRP), predominantly of Times Now.
