<![CDATA[Following a complaint registered by the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), the city cyber police arrested five persons, including TV serial producer Raju, for faking Television Rating Points (TRPs) and leading to losses in crores accruing to ad. firms and private channels. A senior police officer told that the accused namely Raju, Madhu, Suresh, Jemsy and Subhash had spread their network in each district in Karnataka and manipulated and created artificial TRPs. The accused were monitoring the panel meter installed in Mysuru, Hubballi-Dharwad, Kalaburagi, Vijayapura, and Belagavi and the police are also examining meters in other places. BARC had given contract to a Shantinagar-based company for Karnataka, which had installed the panel meters in households. Though they were instructed not to reveal the houses where panel meters were installed, company employees allegedly leaked this information and manipulated TRP ratings, the police officer told. The representatives of the company also allegedly bribed the audience where panel meters were installed to view particular programmes.]]>
