Ratings: What Is The Reason For NTV’s Big Surge?

BARC released the ratings of Telugu News Channels for the Week 23 i.e., from June 3rd to June 9th. NTV maintained its Number One Position over TV9 with a whopping difference of 23 GRPs.

NTV registered 80.4 GRPs and TV9 has 57.2. TV9 was in the Number One spot for two weeks ( Week 19 and 20). TV9, then, unleashed a massive campaign saying that NTV is tampering with the BARC ratings to steal the Number One Position.

Ever since NTV regained its position, the ratings of the channel have been increasing rapidly widening the gap. There is a discussion in the media circles about how NTV is getting such huge ratings.

TV9 and some other channels are bringing back the argument of tampering BARC ratings.

Is it possible to tamper BARC ratings? We do not know if it is happening or not but way back in 2016, BARC penalized three News Channels for tampering it’s Rating meters.

BARC did not publish ratings for Hindi news channel India News and Telugu channels – TV9 Telugu and V6 News for four weeks due to suspected malafide practices.

BARC back then said those channels were found to be tampering with the BARC rating meters placed in households which had allegedly led to a surge in their ratings.

TV9 which faced the allegations back then is now making the same allegations on NTV.

Similar allegations of Ratings manipulation involving Telugu channels have surfaced in 2019 and 2021 as well.