WPP considers defamation against NDTV!

The battle may just be hotting up and getting intense. First it was NDTV that filed a suit against TAM Media Research, a WPP joint venture company on allegations that the ratings produced by TAM had been manipulated. Now in turn WPP, the world’s largest advertising group is considering bringing a defamation action against Indian TV news network NDTV.

 

WPP says that neither it nor any of its operating companies have yet been served with what it calls a “hypothetical lawsuit”.  NDTV had filed a 194-page complaint in a New York court in late July.

 

WPP has said in a statement that there is no merit whatsoever in any of the claims made in the hypothetical lawsuit relating to the WPP parties, nor do the courts of New York have any jurisdiction to hear such claims. In such a scenario it is in the process of issuing an immediate application to strike out the lawsuit and will be seeking to reclaim costs.

 

In the light of these circumstances, WPP is also giving active consideration to issuing proceedings against NDTV for defamation and has instructed its lawyers accordingly.  

 

The legal issues aside, TAM India ("TAM") which is a joint venture between AC Nielsen Research Services Private Limited and Kantar Market Research Services Private Limited, is proud of the service it has been delivering to the market for 14 years, and the way in which investment in technology has been applied to the service. As recent developments indicate, TAM is committed to working with the industry to continuously improve the use of technology, coverage and transparency. TAM has taken and continues to take stringent measures to protect the panel against repeated attempts at tampering by currently unknown parties and has recently agreed a series of additional steps with the industry to remove any question marks about the quality and reliability of the TAM data. TAM, which is jointly owned by Nielsen, recently met with Indian advertising and media executives in the wake of the NDTV allegations to present an action plan for tackling concerns about its ratings data.

 

WPP said: “TAM has taken and continues to take stringent measures to protect the panel against repeated attempts at tampering by currently unknown parties and has recently agreed a series of additional steps with the industry to remove any questions marks about the quality and reliability of the TAM data.”

 

The immediate response by NDTV was not known.