Kerala TRP Scam Sparks Demands for Urgent Overhaul of India’s TV Ratings System

For years, the television industry has lived with murmurs and suspicions about the credibility of India’s audience measurement system. Those concerns, often voiced privately, have now erupted into a full-blown crisis after the emergence of an alleged ₹100-crore TRP manipulation racket in Kerala — a development that has jolted broadcasters, advertisers, regulators and policy planners alike.

The investigation — involving a Kerala channel owner and a Mumbai-based employee of the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) — has arrived at a particularly sensitive moment. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) is already in the midst of reviewing and restructuring the country’s entire television ratings framework. With questions now swirling around data security, meter confidentiality, and possible large-scale manipulation, the controversy has exposed what many experts call “long-ignored blind spots” in the system.

Reform Push Gains New Momentum

Even before the Kerala case surfaced, the MIB had proposed sweeping reforms in its draft policy on television audience measurement. Key recommendations include:

• Expanding the national panel to around 1.2 lakh homes

• Ending BARC’s monopoly by accrediting multiple measurement agencies

• Stricter conflict-of-interest norms to prevent broadcasters from influencing rating outcomes

• Stronger data security, especially around meter locations and viewer information

• Eliminating landing page impressions from official ratings, addressing a long-criticised loophole

These proposals, currently open for public and industry feedback, are expected to shape the next phase of India’s ratings architecture.

But the Kerala revelations have sharpened the debate.

Industry Voices Demand Immediate Action

Stakeholders who once saw the TRP debate as a technical matter are now calling for urgent and assertive reform.

Kailash Adhikari, Business Head, SAB Network, remarked that landing pages may be a marketing tool but must never count toward ratings.

Anil Malhotra, Chief Revenue Officer (Affiliate Sales), ZEEL, stressed that landing page impressions “inflate ratings in an unfair and non-uniform manner,” especially since not all distribution platforms offer such placements. Without a way to distinguish organic viewership from landing-page-generated impressions, Malhotra said, including such numbers in ratings “damages the level playing field.”

Broadcast expert Rajiv Khattar said the Kerala case validates the government’s stance:
“Meter placement data must be absolutely confidential. Management must be accountable. And landing page ratings should stop immediately.”

Another expert warned that the weaknesses go deeper:
“If ratings can be manipulated this easily, then a $3–4 billion market is being influenced by numbers that may not reflect reality. It affects the value of creativity, journalism and advertising alike.”

Inside the Alleged Kerala TRP Racket

The case centres around allegations that a Kerala-based channel paid massive sums — reportedly routed through crypto wallets — to artificially boost its ratings.

The accused BARC employee, Premnath, is alleged to have:

• shared weekly viewership data in advance,

• supplied PIN codes of meter-installed neighbourhoods, enabling highly targeted manipulation, and

• received cryptocurrency transfers totalling nearly ₹100 crore into his Trust Wallet before distributing funds to different entities.

Investigators have found WhatsApp chats containing acknowledgements of payments, exchanges of weekly numbers, and digital cues — including emojis — that appear to confirm transactions.

One of the most striking elements under examination is a case where the numbers allegedly sent privately by Premnath perfectly matched BARC’s official weekly data. Authorities say such precision could indicate deliberate tampering to inflate one channel’s ratings while suppressing competitors.

The scandal took shape after the Kerala Television Federation raised concerns with the state chief minister and BARC’s CEO. The chief minister ordered a detailed probe and a team led by the Director General of Police is now collecting financial, digital and forensic evidence.

Adding to the doubts, the accused channel had earlier attributed its sudden ratings jump to a landing page placement on a small cable network with just 20,000 subscribers — an explanation that contradicted Kerala’s vast base of over 80 lakh cable homes.

A Critical Moment for India’s Broadcasting Industry

The Kerala case has stripped the industry of any illusions about the vulnerabilities in the ratings system. What was once a debate about sample size or methodology is now a question of business credibility and national broadcast integrity.

For advertisers, ratings remain the sole currency for planning billions in spending.
For broadcasters, ratings dictate revenue and content strategy.
For the government, they are central to regulatory oversight.

The emergence of crypto payments, encrypted chat coordination and meter-location targeting signals a new level of sophistication in TRP manipulation — far beyond the traditional allegations of influencing panel homes.

Industry observers draw parallels with the 2020 ratings scandal, but say the stakes are even higher now because the government is already preparing structural reforms. The Kerala case, they argue, may be the catalyst that pushes those reforms from proposal to implementation.

Will This Be the Turning Point?

As the investigation widens, pressure is mounting on policymakers to accelerate long-delayed changes. The ministry’s draft is already seen as a strong blueprint for reform — but the Kerala case has underscored that the overhaul can no longer wait for slow consensus.

Whether this becomes the moment that finally transforms India’s television measurement ecosystem remains to be seen. But the message from across the industry is clear:
If trust in ratings collapses, the entire broadcasting business model is at risk.

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