GMA suing ABS-CBN over ratings fixing claim

(Updated 1:33 p.m.) Broadcast company GMA Network Inc. on Thursday said it will file a libel suit against competitor ABS-CBN, its radio station dzMM, and one of the radio station's reporter over what it said were false allegations of ratings manipulation. In a press conference, GMA legal counsel Dick Perez said the network's legal team found libelous the report made by Junrie Hidalgo, a reporter of radio dzMM which is owned by rival ABS-CBN, alleging GMA's manipulation of ratings in Bacolod City. GMA said Hidalgo erroneously reported that ratings firm AGB Nielsen named GMA Network as the brains behind an operation to bribe metered households in Bacolod to watch GMA shows and influence the ratings. Hidalgo's report was angled: "AGB Nielsen umamin sa dayaan, GMA Network tahasang itinuro sa likod ng dayaan." Perez identified this line as what GMA Network specifically found libelous. GMA Network had earlier categorically denied the report, and noted that AGB Nielsen officials themselves belied the report, and cleared GMA of the accusations. “This strong denial by GMA Network comes at the heels of radio commentaries, news reports on TV and print falsely claiming that AGB named GMA Network as the network allegedly behind the TV ratings manipulation," GMA Network said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange. “The affidavit in court submitted by Maya Reforma of AGB Nielsen belied such accusation against GMA Network," GMA Network said, adding that Reforma’s affidavit showed that AGB Nielsen's ratings data remains accurate and reliable, untainted by alleged bribery operations. Meanwhile, a Quezon City court issued a temporary restraining order preventing AGB Nielsen from undertaking TV ratings measurement activities for 20 days. According to PEP (Philippine Entertainment Portal), ABS-CBN told them in a text message of the court's decision, which was released Thursday. The court, asked AGB Nielsen to "cease and desist from data gathering in release of TV audience measurement data for 20 days." The TRO was part ABS-CBN's appeal to the court when they filed a civil case against AGB Nielsen for damages and injunction last December 14, 2007. ABS-CBN is questioning the authenticity of the television ratings data being produced daily by AGB Nielsen Media Research Philippines after an informant reportedly spilled details that the households tapped for the survey in Bacolod have been influenced by a third party, thus influencing the viewing behavior of the sampled groups. - GMANews.TV, PEP (GMANews.TV is the official website of GMA News and Public Affairs, a unit of GMA Network Inc.)