Republic’s TRPs high from 1st month, used to get revenue: Cops | India News – Times of India

MUMBAI: A forensic audit into ARG Outlier Media Pvt Ltd’s accounts showed TRPs (TV rating points) and viewership of its Hindi channel, Republic Bharat, were high from the very first month of its launch in 2016, police probing the TRP manipulation scam said.
Increased TRP resulted in giving ARG Outlier Media (the company which owns Republic TV and Republic Bharat) the leverage to bargain for higher revenue. It also “valued its share at a high premium by projecting high revenues for future years,” the report said.
The CCPS (compulsory convertible preference shares) of face value of Rs 10 each were valued at a premium of Rs 12,990 in 2016 before launch of the channel, Rs 32,813 in November 2018 and Rs 36,560 in December 2019, officials quoting the report said.
CCPS are allotted to investors and converted into ordinary shares after a predetermined date based on company’s performance. ARG indulged in artificially increasing its share value and collecting investments and routing some of these funds to purchase its own shares through its parent company at 300% higher value.
Police said they will add this forensic auditing report while filing the supplementary chargesheet soon. The crime branch is probing the role of Republic TV, Fakt Marathi, Box Cinema, News Nation, Mahamovies and Wow channel for inflating viewership figures, which media-buying houses consider before placing advertisements.
The channels are accused of paying money to households to keep their shows on. Police on Monday recorded statements of four cable operators from Sangli, Nashik and Kolhapur. In the 1,400-page chargesheet filed last month, police had said the channel’s distribution head, Ghanshyam Singh, in connivance with cable operators and multi-system operators, managed to run Republic TV on dual frequencies in violation of Television Regulatory Authority of India norms.