COURTESY HT JAN 16

Ratings, strategy, name-dropping: Goswami’s ‘chats’ with ex-Barc chief show close association

Arnab Goswami
Charul Shah and Manish K Pathak

letters@hindustantimes.com

Mumbai : For about three years, Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami was allegedly in constant touch with then Broadcast Audience Research Council (Barc) chief Partho Dasgupta and the duo discussed viewer ratings, television strategies, and rival Hindi and English-language channels, with Goswami claiming access to top ministers and officials, according to WhatsApp chat transcripts that are part of a 3,600-page charge sheet filed by Mumbai Police.

Police said the chat transcripts, which run into 500 pages and were seen by HT, were retrieved from Dasgupta’s phone after he was arrested in December in connection with alleged manipulation of TRP (Television Rating Points). The charge sheet was filed on Monday. Claims made by Goswami of his influence at senior levels in the government were unsubstantiated and unconfirmed. HT could not independently confirm the conversations as depicted in the transcripts.

In one transcript dated July 7, 2017, Dasgupta allegedly discussed with Goswami complaints received by the Union ministry of Information & Broadcasting against Republic TV. The charge sheet showed Dasgupta purportedly told Goswami that the complaint was not yet forwarded to Barc, a joint-industry body that independently measures television audience, and added that he was “quite sure that the complaints would never reach them (Barc)”. In May 2017, the two purportedly discussed the ratings of Republic TV and if Barc could be asked to release the data in public.