WPP must stick to the facts and not indulge in a PR exercise: NDTV

NDTV is baffled and amused by the PR effort issued by WPP.  PR is clearly the main aim, as the WPP statement contains a number of legal flaws as per the statement issued by NDTV.

 

In a statement issued to media by NDTV it says "It is indeed strange that they term the suit as hypothetical as it is available for everyone to read in full on the website of the Supreme Court of New York (as reported first by the Hollywood Reporter and read by many since). In fact it appears as though WPP must have read it too as they refer to many details in the NDTV complaint and respond with several false denials!"

 

The statememt further adds "Moreover, while they claim that the suit has not been served, they surely know, or should know, that service was indeed made on the 10th of August in New York, and processes under the Hague Convention are also underway as is the  normal procedure. Moreover, the lawyers for Kantar Media Research (UK), have already confirmed to NDTV that the service on their client was acceptable in New York. In fact, matters have progressed much beyond 'service'; the lawyers for Nielsen have been in touch with our lawyers and have requested for an extension. In addition, the CEO of Kantar has been in touch with us and has acknowledged receiving the complaint. NDTV has affidavits to substantiate this."

 

NDTV statement also says "While many may attribute sinister motives to WPP's   Statement which is full of factual and legal errors, NDTV would give them the benefit of the doubt and assume WPP has made a silly error which simple cross-checking through their internal systems will soon correct. If all else fails, for details of the complaint we suggest they visit the Supreme Court of New York's website where the "non-hypothetical" complaint is detailed in full."

 

The statement concludes with "We suggest WPP refrain from using their massive PR machine to make baseless threats against NDTV.  Instead we request that WPP should focus on honestly fixing (for want of a better word!) their badly damaged and dishonest ratings system in India - which in their Statement they acknowledge they have control over and is their responsibility"