Fudged cable data sees Doordarshan still ruling TRPs in UP

Vijay Upadhyay
Agra. It is often seen that any new satellite channel begins claiming its "record-breaking popularity" among the masses shortly after its launch, based on the Television Rating Points (TRPs) amassed by them through sample surveys among the viewers of some metropolitan cities.

But if the data made available by the UP Entertainment Tax Department is to be believed, the satellite channels are still a long way from becoming the voice of the masses as these channels have virtually no viewership in Uttar Pradesh and most of the population still relies on the good old "Doordarshan" for their daily dose of entertainment.
According to the official figures of the State's Entertainment Tax Department, Uttar Pradesh, with its gigantic population of 17 crore people, has a surprisingly low number of only 9 lakh cable television connections, amounting to nearly 0.05 percent of the State's population. Even Agra, despite being in close vicinity of Delhi and a population of over 22 lakhs, has just over 26 thousand cable television connections.

UP Commissioner (Entertainment) Mohan Swarup told The Pioneer that the department conducted a survey of the total number of cable TV connections in the state last year, which was about 9 lakh connections, a 20 per cent increase from previous years.

Mr Swarup said that the average increase in the number of cable connections in the State had risen very slowly during the past couple of years, indicating that the reach of cable TV was not as strong as many expected.

But in reality, it is apparent that the cable operators are the weakest link in this data acquisition. Many believe that the data provided by the cable operators may be fudged.

Agra currently has two large cable networks operating in the town, each claiming to have a reach among at least 60-70 per cent of the town population. In a town where almost no household is left without a cable television connection and when the cable networks have graduated to the optical fibre based systems, the number of just 26,000 cable TV households is quite hard to believe as was expressed by the Agra Divisional Commissioner Ashok Kumar recently during a meeting.

Mr Kumar said that it was hard to believe that Agra had only 26,000 cable TV connections. He said that the cable operators in the town were obviously playing a number game, hiding the actual number of connections to avoid paying the entertainment tax. The divisional commissioner also said that the tax recovery from Agra should be at least three times the present amount.

The Agra administration will conduct a fresh door-to-door survey of the cable TV households in the town to arrive on a more authentic number, he added.

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