Slaps $1.39 billion lawsuit on TAM India and global parent firms Nielsen & Kantar
News broadcaster NDTV has sued the country’s only television audience measurement company TAM India — and its global parent firms Nielsen and Kantar — for over a billion dollars in the Supreme Court of New York, accusing TAM of manipulating ratings in return for bribes to its officials.
While there have been allegations of manipulation of TAM’s viewership data among broadcasters for years, NDTV has finally blown the whistle with its July 25 lawsuit, seeking damages of at least $810 million for its losses over the last eight years due to TAM’s allegedly fraudulent actions. Accusing Nielsen and Kantar of deliberately ignoring the situation even after having been presented with evidence — detailed in the 194-page lawsuit — NDTV is also seeking damages of $580 million for losses due to negligence over the last three years.
On Tuesday, NDTV reported a net loss of Rs. 26.09 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2012, significantly higher than the Rs. 17.98 crore loss reported during the quarter ended June 30, 2011. Both TAM India and NDTV refused to comment.
TAM installs “PeopleMeters” in over 8,000 sample homes to monitor viewership patterns, giving critical input to corporate decisions on the advertising purchases that fund and sustain the broadcast industry. In its lawsuit, NDTV claims that the small sample size and low turnover have given rise to rampant corruption, with touts willing to “fix” ratings by influencing sample homes. One so-called “consultant” told NDTV and Nielsen and Kantar officials in a January 2012 meeting how the list of PeopleMeter homes — supposed to be secret — was leaked in Bangalore. He explained how he was able to successfully bribe viewers in sample homes, as well as TAM staff, and finally get a PeopleMeter installed at his own residence.
In April 2012, two Mumbai field staff of TAM met NDTV representatives and offered to manipulate the channels ratings, claiming that “they could triple channel ratings of NDTV in Mumbai over a period of two to three weeks in the required target group. They stated they had direct access to homes and visited those homes periodically (at least 3 to 4 times a week) and were in a position to easily influence what the households watched/viewed. They said by paying a bribe of $250 to $500 per household per month, the TAM households could be made to watch only those channels which they insisted upon.”
After a thorough investigation, Kantar and Nielsen found the consultant’s information to be correct and “very credible.” However, they failed to take any action, and continued to release tainted TV rating data every week.
Keywords: NDTV litigation, Television Audience Measurement, Nielsen, Kantar Media Research, TAM ratings
Well, the old quote : three kind of lies, white lies, black lies & Statistics ! India as it is a very complex market. TAM metered households form a very micro segment of India's viwers universe. In fact, as per survey done by TAM itself, it reflects the quantum massive change in India's rural market viewership data. Unless and untill sample is further increased in proportion to the target segments it is very tough to draw detailed market conclusion on the results. This is made further complex, seeing the quantum of channels that are being received in the Indian market, with still 85 % + C&S households with a single set, to derive ideal conclusion is really tough.
This is all so obnoxious! NDTV that has today filed a lawsuit, taking a moral high ground, is also not free from corrupt practices. The channel is also known for its own brand of sensationalism. Nothing can be expected of corporate media. All of them engage in corrupt and unethical practices. Banish them all.
Is this a surprise? Not! Corruption is in the mind. Politicians and government agents are our favourite punching bag, but we need to look within first. When I started working, almost 10 yrs ago, I didn't think much of "stealing" paperclips, a stapler, printer paper, etc., from my office. Neither did I think anything of making international calls from my office phone. I now realize that these are examples of corruption.
I am sure, others don't think twice about asking their security guards to work in their garden or using official cars for personal purposes. Mostly because they think they are "entitled" or deserve it.
Change starts from within.
NDTV and honesty! What an irony!!
Now is NDTV making noise? I was surprised after the Radia tapes, that they still kept a journalist like Barkha Dutt...are we in politics so blantantly or we are getting NEWS to people?
I have stopped watching channels like NDTV and even reading through their website after knowing all this, always stick to the good old ones without unnecessary frills. People should punish should journalism/TV news channel as they deem fit by not watching them.
Suja
Ndtv was initially very good.in the last few years it has become blatantly one sided.it has
become a congress tv.it has openly supported scamstars and will pay the penalty on
viewership.with such huge scams more was expected of it in national interest.sorry you may
file suits but you have lost on the emotional side of the people of India.
INDIAN TV channels are not watchable.They are highly biased and
overloaded with advertisements. The selection of news are also poor.NDTV
is highly pro govt. I used to watch this channel. I have completely
blanked it.
The programmes should be that are common man interest and not for
imposing the opinions.
It is a known issue that media ratings are manipulated. It is just made known to public(again) with these news.It will stay in people's mind for a year and becomes history.
Here is CAG's report againt ND TV. CAG alleged that while awarding
contracts worth Rs 3.78 crore for production & broadcasting of
commercials for promoting CWG-2010 to NDTV & CNN-IBN, the Commonwealth
Games Organizing Committee followed an arbitrary approach. Proposals
were considered in an ad hoc manner, as and when a proposal was
received; no form of competitive tendering was adopted. The CAG
further said in its report that, "We had no assurance about the
competitiveness of the rates quoted by these channels and the need and
usefulness of these proposals. From March 2010 to June 2010, the
entire pre games publicity and sponsorship publicity was done only on
NDTV & CNN-IBN." [24][25][26]
Agree with D.Ramakrishnan
Hope people switch to Non-sensational newspaper to get sensible news, if i may say, things that do not happen next to you are not news and news that happen far off effects are directly proportional to the distance no need to get rushed for irrational sensationalism.
Even though I agree that the ratings were probably manipulated, why was
this not reported earlier? It is possible that NDTV were involved in
bribing. Also, why was the case filed in New York and not in India?
NDTVs own programmes are responsible for the bad ratings rather than any other agency rating. Its coverage of matters of national interest is significantly inadequate and when it covers its biased and judgemental rather than being critical and analytical. The have got lot to learn from international channels like BBC and Aljazeera.
It is sheer commercialism and elitism that brought the downfall of NDTV which is all permeating in their juvenile way of reporting/under-reporting/ignoring the issues of its choice. Check the number of followers for NDTV on facebook -- it is under 5 lakh and for CNN-IBN it is 11 lakh -- does NDTV say that even this is a conspiracy? I think one of the best methods of capturing the mood of the public(youngsters especially) for the English News channels is to see the number of followers on facebook in today's age. I think the frustration of the NDTV's top brass is finally being shown up in this desperate lawsuit against TAM India. Definitely NDTV will not become popular by indulging in these types of bullying tactics -- it is only going to end up being the laughing stock and exposing itself to the world. Finally, journalism is not about having dazzling studios all around -- it is taking on real issues in a wholehearted way by coming out of the comfort zone. And it can never be tokenism.
Whenever we want to catch some news of the day in a hurry, it can't
be done in any of the news channels including NDTV. Al we get are
the TV ads. repeated endlessly.
TRP ratings are behind the malice of sensationalisation of news.
Hopefully this lawsuit will bring some sanity back to tv channels.
corruption, corruption at every level in all fields in government and
private places and these people are enjoying and common people are
suffering.
It is fallacy to think that sample of 8000 people is representative of entire country. The people in north have no clue what people in south watch and down here, we laugh when they say that star channels are popular across country
No doubt ratings are manipulated.
Electronic Media themselves are saying that Electronic Media has been
bribed. Truth which all of us knew has come out.
Why no one sued NDTV on false news? Moreover, they are involved in providing live coverage to terror outfits in Mumbai attacks!
Radia tapes revealed their involvement in 2G scam!
Well, this is what you get if you pick a sample size of 8000 for a country that has population of 110 crores. And these 8000 people have the potential to influence crores and crores of advertising revenue.
And even without knowing the exact list of people, it is easy to guess that the distribution is probably skewed to the metro cities and state capitals and not so much as to the other parts of India.
In every sphere cheating and corruption is rooted in the people of the
country. Only money is needed, no matter the character. They eat even
filth, if money is given free. What may be the reason? The wise have
to think over and suggest remedy to the Authorities. Keeping silent
will ruin the society. Parents tell their children, teachers teach
theirs students morals in between their class subjects, Govt pass good
laws to public to follow and the police take stringent and quick action
against the law braker.
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