Philippine News and Entertainment

Nielsen stands by TV rating (Inquirer)

Television ratings firm AGB Nielsen Media Research is standing by the accuracy of its TV survey results, saying there is no basis for ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp.?s demand for it to stop distributing the ratings data.

?There is no basis for it. The data is accurate and reliable. Its accuracy has been checked and confirmed by globally accepted statistical practices and standards. There is no danger that the data will unfairly or inaccurately represent the viewing habits of our subject TV audiences,? AGB Nielsen general manager Maya Reforma said in a statement Friday.

Reforma also said AGB Nielsen would fully comply with the 20-day temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 80 which was based on a complaint filed by ABS-CBN against the media agency.

?We will fully comply as we cooperate with the court to enable it to come to a just resolution of this case,? Reforma said in a statement.

ABS-CBN secured the TRO on Thursday, preventing research agency AGB Nielsen Media Research (Philippines) Inc. from gathering and releasing data on TV ratings due to the alleged corrupted home panels.

ABS-CBN, however, accused AGB Nielsen on Friday of violating the TRO and said it would file contempt charges against the media agency next week.

?We are extremely disappointed with the decision of AGB Nielsen to disobey the clear terms of the TRO. They made a narrow and self-serving interpretation of the TRO. AGB in violation of the TRO provision released ratings data to ABS-CBN Thursday and to all other subscribers, when they were supposed to stop that,? ABS-CBN said.

But Reforma noted that the TRO issued by the court pertained to data gathered from allegedly corrupted home panels, and not the totality of its data.

AGB Nielsen also said that based on its own exhaustive investigations, the alleged tampering was confined to certain ?home panels? in Bacolod City.

But AGB Nielsen said the alleged attempts to tamper with its data had no effect on its TV survey results.

Reforma told the court that the company had ?reprocessed? its data by excluding the panel homes in Bacolod, compared the new data with the original and found that the alleged tampering activities had no effect on the results.

And so there you go. Clearly ABS-CBN’s attempts at trying to discredit AGB Nielsen on the basis of the Bacolod findings alone will not work. I really hope ABS-CBN goes all the way with this since it will signal the beginning of the end — and hopefully change — but I’m really not that hopeful.

I can’t believe they’ve gotten this desperate! The high-profile flops must have been too much for their pride.

I can’t wait for “Lobo”. Masaya na naman dito sa Pinoy Rickey pag nag flop din ‘yun.