Mumbai: The Mumbai Police announced Thursday that it had unearthed a scam related to the alleged manipulation of television rating points (TRP) by three television channels — Arnab Goswami’s Republic TV, Fakt Marathi and Box Cinema.
The Mumbai Police Crime Branch accused the three channels of being involved in a “major racket” of manipulating viewership data.
While Republic TV has courted controversy before and is the prime focus of this scandal, Fakt Marathi, a Marathi general entertainment channel, and Box Cinema, a Hindi movie channel, are relatively obscure.
The police has arrested the owners of the two channels, Shirish Pattanshetty of Fakt Marathi and Narayan Sharma of Box Cinema, while the directors and promoters of Republic TV are yet to be questioned.
Also read: Mumbai Police accuses Republic TV of fudging TRPs, Arnab says commissioner ‘targeting’ it
Fakt Marathi — a top 5 Marathi language channel
Fakt Marathi is a general entertainment channel owned by Enter10 Television Private Limited, a Madhya Pradesh-based company launched by Manish Singhal, an entrepreneur.
The company, which was founded in 2004, runs four television channels and Fakt Marathi is one of them. The other three are Hindi movie channel Enterr10, general entertainment channel Dangal and 24-hour Bhojpuri movie channel Bhojpuri Cinema.
The company had initially launched Fakt Marathi, a free-to-air channel, as a round-the-clock Marathi movie channel. It started airing general entertainment programmes only last year and converted to a complete general entertainment channel earlier this year.
Pattanshetty, who was arrested by the Mumbai Police, is a co-promoter of the channel.
Fakt Marathi broadcasts Marathi serials cutting across genres such as spirituality and family drama. It has also aired Marathi-dubbed versions of popular television serials such as Tarakh Mehta ka Ulta Chashma, which originally airs on Sab TV, a Hindi entertainment channel.
According to a report, the channel’s viewership increased by 30-35 per cent in the six weeks of complete lockdown in the country, imposed due to the Covid pandemic, from March to May.
However, Pattanshetty was quoted as saying that the channel’s advertising revenue had fallen by 65-70 per cent as shops and establishments were shut and besides essential services brands, nothing else was being promoted.
Fakt Marathi currently occupies the fifth position among the top Marathi channels in the country, according to ratings released weekly by industry body Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC).
It made its foray into the top five channels, in terms of ratings, for the first time in February.
The company’s other channels such as Dangal and Bhojpuri Cinema are also among the top ten and top five channels in ratings, respectively, among Hindi general entertainment channels and Bhojpuri channels.
Box Cinema
Unlike Fakt Marathi, Box Cinema does not feature anywhere in the top ratings of the BARC.
The channel is owned by Mumbai-based Box Cinemedia Services Private Limited, founded by Narayan Sharma in 2016. The company’s other directors are Ajay Sharma and Pawankumar Sharma.
Narayan has also been running ‘Trishul advertising’, a city-based advertising agency, for the past 23 years.
Box Cinema is also a free-to-air channel and runs a collection of Hindi movies such as Muqabala (1993), Caravan (1971), Insaaf ka Khoon (1991), Fareb (1996) and so on, as well as some regional movies dubbed in Hindi.
Also read: Republic’s ‘TRP fixing’ heats up TV channels’ war — others take potshots, Arnab calls them out