"TAM welcomes the opportunity to address facts"

WPP and NDTV’s media war continues even as NDTV has stated that it has no desire to get into a prolonged trial by media and WPP has said that it welcomes the statement.

In a press statement issued on August 27, 2012, NDTV said it had six questions to ask WPP – some that were already raised in NDTV’s lawsuit and some that arise in the wake of the lawsuit.

WPP has said that these “detailed questions will be and have been addressed in the proper forum: with the industry, or in the proper court and not in an exchange of media statements. As we have noted several times in previous statements, TAM welcomes the opportunity to address the facts. In the meantime, TAM continues, as it has done in the past, to work to improve its system, with the support and involvement of its many stakeholders and its highly respected management.”

WPP is supporting TAM all the way on this subject. Quoting an NDTV statement, WPP also said, “We are pleased that NDTV recognises, in this latest announcement, that Kantar, Nielsen and TAM have in fact been working with NDTV, over a long period, to address improvements in the system. It is not true that, as NDTV has previously stated, “nothing” was being done about NDTV’s concerns.”

We welcome NDTV's statement that it has no desire to get into a prolonged trial by media. We have issued statements only in order to correct selective and misleading statements in the media.

To NDTV’s charge that WPP was complicating core issues, WPP said, that that were was obfuscation. “The nature of TAM's business requires continuous investment and technology and TAM is committed to working with the industry to continuously improve the use of its technology, coverage and transparency. Stringent measures have been taken to protect the panel against repeated attempts at tampering by unknown persons. Discussions continue, as they have for some time, with industry stakeholders to ensure quality and reliability of the data,” said the holding company.

NDTV Lawyers wrote to Kantar lawyers as recently as August 21
Having said the above WPP once again clarified on the discussions around settlement. WPP said, “As we have said, and NDTV now admits, NDTV CEO had initiated a request for settlement discussions on 27 July. Vikram Chandra’s email to Eric Salama was very clear in suggesting settlement discussions take place before “NDTV proceeds with costly litigation”. As recently as 21 August NDTV's lawyers wrote to Kantar's lawyers enquiring about the possibility of a settlement meeting. The precise wording of that email was: "please let us know what the current status is in relation to settlement possibilities and/or a meeting, which we believe is the subject of certain email communications between Eric Salama of Kantar and Vikram Chandra of NDTV.” In addition to Vikram’s Chandra's email attempting to initiate a settlement meeting, NDTV’s lawyers have also referred to the possibility of settlement discussions on other occasions.”

WPP reasserted that as for the ‘lawsuit’, it remains of the firm view that it has not been served, the claims in that lawsuit have no merit whatsoever, and that it has been issued in an entirely inappropriate jurisdiction.

TV stations blame measurement for falling ratings
“It is not unusual for TV stations to seek to blame the measurement of audience data for their falling ratings, but we note that NDTV is in the habit of quoting TAM data when it suits it. For example, in NDTV's statement of highlights for the Quarter ended September 30th 2011, NDTV quoted TAM ratings to demonstrate that NDTV Good Times was "the number 1 lifestyle channel in the country as per TAM ratings. Advertising revenue has seen a substantial jump in the second quarter of the year.”

“We reiterate the pride TAM takes in the services it has been delivering to the market for 14 years and TAM, together with its highly respected and admired management, looks forward to continuing to engage with the industry to meet its needs.”