The I&B Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi said he would go to Mumbai on October 7 to discuss the issue with various stakeholders.

"I feel that the present TRP mechanism to judge a channel's popularity is faulty. TV viewers in rural India are out of the net of these TRPs. How can one justify the results based on a few samples across a few cities?" he said.

A section in the ministry feels that sting operations and other activities of some channels reflect a desperate attempt to grab higher TRPs to attract advertisers.

According to an official, "The rating system must come to an end. Viewers should see programmes according to their own wish and the advertisers should also use other parameters rather than this unscientific TRP method to decide where to advertise."

According to sources, the ministry has been asked to find ways to stop the present TRP mechanism by some private broadcasters.

However, CEO of a Hindi news channel finds it strange that the ministry should worry about industry research. "What has the government to do with an industry body research? It is for the industry and funded by the industry. Tomorrow the government may want to clamp down on the NRS and IRS, the print media readership surveys," he said.

L V Krishnan, CEO of TAM, the TV monitoring agency that releases TRPs, said the agency was open to any discussions with the minister as well as the stakeholders who used the research.

"But what a news channel does has nothing to do with us. Our system is a reflection of what the audiences are watching. About the sample size, all we can ask is if the industry can afford a larger sample," he said.