Ratings scandal

After the Axact-Bol scandal rocked Pakistan’s burgeoning news channel industry at the start of the year, over the last two months a fake ratings scandal has begun to make waves across the industry. A powerful media group has been accused of having bribed officials in a ratings’ agency to boost its ratings. Around two weeks ago, the head of ratings’ agency, Medialogic Pakistan, alleged through a press conference that Express News had been paying some of Medialogic’s staff members to up its ratings. The company also claimed that the channel had paid people in houses where ratings’ meters had been installed to watch their channel alone. The company had confirmed that it had started disciplinary proceedings against the said employees and had registered FIRs against them. The police case is being handled by CIA Lahore. Medialogic has also asked the Pakistan Broadcasters Association to investigate the issue and take action against the said channel. On Saturday, a third party auditor told a meeting of the board of the PBA that the claims of tampering ratings in favour of Express News were true. The independent auditor had taken account of eight months of data starting from January 2015 and reported that at least 70 percent of the ratings increase of the channel came through tampering. The same auditor had been appointed to check the accounts of Medialogic in 2014 so challenging his neutrality seems difficult. Despite the confirmation that the said channel tampered with news ratings, action could not be taken since no representative of the channel was present at the meeting.
This latest case has left the Pakistani media in a precarious position for the second time this year. Accusations of ratings manipulation have often been made against various channels. However, this is the first time any have been proven. When media observers comment that Pakistani TV channels would do anything for ratings, they usually mean shoddy programming, sensational storytelling and manufactured drama on TV shows. Engaging in the practice of bribing ratings agencies to up their ratings is usually not what they have in mind. Bribing rating agencies is anti-competitive behaviour that plays up your position in the advertisements market over other channels. Some media reports have alleged that the said channel was able to make at least Rs400-500 million more due to the tampered ratings. The channel itself had earlier alleged that the ratings company had been blackmailing it. These accusations seem to have been negated by the third party audit. The questions that now arise are over what course of action needs to be taken. Should the channel be fined? Should its license be suspended – or more? Once again, the credibility of Pakistan’s media is under question.