The TV ratings controversy: let's resolve it

TV violence in India has recently been on the rise.  And that's just the audience measurement system!

A noisy public dispute has broken out between an Indian TV network, the TV ratings service measuring national TV viewership, and assorted advertising trade bodies.  Now India's government is weighing in. We all need to put the brakes on a runaway train before it smashes into the buffers.

For several weeks, an acrimonious fight has been conducted in Indian TV news reports, business press and advertising trade publications.  A row that has simmered for years has abruptly boiled over.  It concerns television audience measurement and the Indian national TV ratings service supplied by TAM (a Kantar company in the WPP Group) for over a decade. 

TV interests (notably the NDTV network) have been accusing the TAM service of corruption and systematic rigging of audience results (See: NDTV sues Nielsen, TAM for 'twisting data for bribes').

Conflict has rapidly escalated into multilateral finger-pointing and lawsuits, in an atmosphere of increasing hysteria and mutual vituperation.  Broadcaster NDTV has filed a 160-page lawsuit against TAM in a New York court, alleging flawed methodology and corrupt manipulation of their ratings service, aimed at systematically depressing NDTV reported audiences by around 60 per cent.

Allegations of bribe-taking are implicit in the suit. Kantar / WPP, TAM's proprietor, has repudiated the lawsuit and the accusations, but has presented a six-point action plan to address concerns about its ratings data.