END OF YEAR WRITS FLY FOR NIELSEN AND ITS JOINT VENTURE OPERATION WITH WPP, AGB NIELSEN
December 19th 2007 11:26
Nielsen will be happy to see 2007 come to a close because it’s been a rocky ride for the company globally this month.
It has just lost the contract to measure UK television to TNS when the current Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board contract with AGB Nielsen expires in 2010 (see today’s MediaBlab report.)
Understandably, it hasn’t happy about this at all and the Guardian reports that the “appointment has been mired in controversy with Nielsen, the joint venture partner in AGB Nielsen, (the business is 50 percent owned by Sir Martin Sorrell's WPP) reportedly threatening to take legal action over patents related to measurement products TNS plans to use.”
As MediaBlab reported yesterday, Spain's top media company Prisa has taken legal action against Nielsen due to an ‘unjustified’ downgrade of its audience figures for the website of its newspaper, El Pais.
On top of this comes news from the Philippines that TV giant ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp has sued media research agency AGB Nielsen Media Research Philippines over its alleged "systematic, organised and well-funded attempt" to rig television ratings.
“We regret to bring this matter to the public but the Filipino people and the entire media industry deserve to know the truth," ABS-CBN chair Eugenio Lopez III said in a video clip shown during a press briefing on Friday.
The Philippines Inquirer reported, “At the press briefing, ABS-CBN executives related how the network came to discover the alleged attempt to cheat in the ratings.
“According to Vivian Tin, chief officer for research and business analysis, a few weeks ago, the ABS-CBN station manager in Bacolod was sought out by a man who volunteered to offer information about attempts to bribe households where AGB Nielsen's meters were installed to get them to switch the programs they were watching.
As a result of this discovery, Tin said ABS-CBN has demanded that AGB Nielsen shut down its service and investigate the extent of the breach.
AGB-Nielsen, however, refused, saying it would need to investigate further.
Business World Online reported that publicly listed ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp on Friday filed a civil case against AGB Nielsen Media Research Philippines on Friday for damages and injunction with an application for a temporary restraining order, with the Quezon City Regional Trial Court for refusing to give in to the demands of its client ABS-CBN.
Business World said, “The network is suing the research firm for a total of Philippine Pesos 81 million (A$2.25 million), P63 million of which is for the license fee it paid for the ratings service the past year that AGB Nielsen “failed” to render since its data is “tainted” and allegedly unreliable. It is asking for P15 million in moral damages and P3 million in costs for litigation.”
- From MediaBlab
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