ITV

Tag: Raju

  • BARC panel tampering: first arrests made

    BARC panel tampering: first arrests made

    The Cyber Crime Police in Bengaluru, acting on a complaint filed by the Broadcast Research Council of India (BARC), has arrested five people allegedly for trying to tamper with the television viewership data generated and reported by BARC every week.

    The five arrested include a TV serial producer Raju and four others – Suresh, Jemsy, Subhash and Madhu. The five men allegedly approached the people in whose houses the BARC’s bar-o-meters are installed and asked them to watch a particular show at a particular time in lieu of incentives. The five arrested are currently in judicial custody.

    This is the first time that the Cyber Crime Police have taken action against anyone for this reason.

    Raju allegedly used to approach the producers and offer them to increase the viewership numbers of their serials against a good amount of money.

    “An FIR was registered in this regard and during the course of investigation, it was found that a group of people were involved in illegally hiking the TRP by using multiple televisions and also by paying a small sum to those people in whose houses the TRP meter would be installed, and asking them to watch a particular channel at a particular time. On getting credible information, police arrested the five accused. Investigations revealed that Raju and his team were working for it. Also, this year, BARC had given a contract to a new firm to install the TRP meters. The role of staff in that firm is also being investigated,” the Bengaluru police told The New Indian Express.

    In September 2017, BARC had urged the TRAI and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) to bring in legislations making TV viewership data tamper-proof and stipulate stringent penalties for offenders.

    Over the last 18 months, several instances have come to light where TV channels were found to be allegedly attempting to tamper and influence audience data and indulging in other malpractices to boost viewership or TV ratings points, as it’s popularly described in India. In some cases, BARC India undertook counter-measures resulting in alleged offenders taking legal recourse. In some other instances, the regulator had to issue warnings in an effort to do damage control.

    Also Read:

    BARC India to TRAI and MIB: Tweak legislation to make data tamper-proof

    Demystifying news television viewership in 2017

    BARC segments viewership data for South regional news from GECs

  • Nach Baliye 6 to take a bold turn this season

    Nach Baliye 6 to take a bold turn this season

    MUMBAI: Come 9 November, Star Plus’ viewers are going to get to witness the flavours of love, passion and romance amongst reel and real life TV star couples once again as the channel flags off Nach Baliye Season 6. The 13-week long series will air every weekend at 9.00 pm, coming in as a replacement for Junior Masterchef which is coming to a close.

    With a brand new season, the channel, says it plans to make Nach Baliye bigger, better and bolder this year, though with the same format and the seductive campaign line “Hadh se badhega romance…is bar hoga Aisa dance.”

    Produced by Frames Productions, Nach Baliye season six brings together 11 celebrity couples that include: Raju and Shikha Shrivastava, Rakesh Vashisht and Ridhi Dogra, Kanika Maheshwari Ghai and Ankur Ghai, Gurmeet Choudhary and Debina Bonnerjee, Ripu Daman Handa and Shivangi Verma, Yash Sinha and Amrapali Gupta, Kiku and Priyanka Sharda, Bruna Abdalah and Omar Farooque, Sanjeev and Lataa Seth, Rithvik Dhanjani and Asha Negi and last but not the least Vinod and Raksha Thakur.

    “After making successful seasons of four and five, this season, we plan to take it to the next level. Our endeavour is to sustain this legacy of success achieved so far and bring viewers much closer to their favourite stars. Behind every couple there is a unique story not known to the public. We will strive to bring out each of their unique stories to engage Nach Baliye fans,” says Frames Production producer Hemant Ruprell.

    “Normally, these TV couples are so busy with their day to day schedules they may not give each other so much time. Participating in the show enables them to come together and explore more than what they know about each other over three months of competition. Nach Baliye is based on the principle that dancing together will bring you closer and it serves to reignite romance between couples,” Star Plus non-fiction head Ashish Golwalkar exults. “And of course on top of this there is a strong layer of entertainment in terms of comedy and moments that get played out on TV. People sitting at home will enjoy the journey.”

     

    The channel has retained the judges this season. Viewers will get to see Bollywood’s yummy mummy and dancing diva Shilpa Shetty, celebrated choreographer Terrence Lewis and director Sajid Khan. Hosts Gautam Rode and Karan Wahi are expected to add their brand of humour and banter to this drama filled dance show. Interestingly, the shooting has already begun with two episodes been canned in Filmistan Studio, Mumbai even as this story is being penned.

    “There is nothing subtle about this season,” asserts Star India EVP content strategy Gaurav Banerjee. “Each act will be conceived to show you a vibrant and exciting expression of love.”

    The Star Plus programming team is quite sanguine that Nach Baliye 6 will have no problems in getting in the TVTs once again.

    “Last year our content was pure and because of that purity of content, we were the No 1 show from the launch day till the end,” asserts Golwalkar. “There is going to be competition in any slot and at any given point of time on TV. But viewers have really appreciated and supported us. We have done our bit, and have really worked hard to put it together and it will be bigger, different and better than any other show.”

    Even though an announcement of the presenting sponsor was not made at the time of writing, the show’s season 6 facebook page, has Vaseline associated as presenting sponsor once again with Babool being the powered-by sponsor. Last year, LR Active Oil was the powered-by sponsor.

    The channel is really pressing hard on the marketing pedal in a bid to get the viewership numbers it hopes to achieve. For starters, there’s TV. A series of promos revealing the main contestants, Gurmeet and Deblina, and Raqesh and Riddhi Vashist has already hit the Star Network channels. Secondly, its facebook page has attracted around 6,500 likes, a fortnight before launch.

    Then the various couples’ online fan clubs have been encouraged to talk about them on twitter, apart from the handle #NachBaliye6 being flashed on its @StarPlus account to generate the buzz.

    Thirdly, activities revolving around traditional media (hoardings, television spots, radio, cinema) are already being rolled out. According to an estimate, close to Rs 2 crore has been set aside as marketing spend for the show.

    With that kind of muscle being put behind Nach Baliye 6, it is quite likely that it could well match its main rival Dance India Dance Season 4 step for step on the performance front.