Less than a year after NDTV broke off with TAM Rating, many Indian broadcasters have walked out of the ratings monopoly. Does this rating serve any useful purpose?

Sucheta Dalal

Less than a year ago, NDTV’s decision to sue TAM (Television Audience Monitoring) for a billion dollars sparked many derisive comments. But just two months after a New York court dismissed the case, several broadcasters have walked out of the monopoly TAM system, making the exact same allegations as NDTV had. What has changed in one year? And why did broadcasters not strengthen NDTV’s hands then? The broadcaster had accused TAM of manipulating ratings on behalf of those who paid bribes. The fact is that Neilsen, which owns TAM, is part of the WPP group, which is such a dominant player in the media buying business that many broadcasters probably didn’t dare to take it on. Since that situation remains unchanged, what has emboldened broadcasters, such as Sony, Times Global Broadcasting, Sri Adhikari and probably the Network18 group, to walk out today?

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