QC court issues TRO on AGB Nielsen TV ratings surveys

A Quezon City court on Thursday issued a temporary restraining order against ratings firm AGB Nielsen which prevents it from performing its nationwide television ratings gathering activities. The TRO was requested by broadcasting firm ABS-CBN, which has alleged that AGB Nielsen’s data for Bacolod City has been tampered with. The TRO, which was issued by Judge Charito Gonzales of QC Regional Trial Court branch 80, will be effective for 20 days. “The defendant [AGB Nielsen]… is hereby ordered to cease and desist from pursuing its nationwide television audience measurement [TAM] data gathering activities from corrupted home panels and delivering, releasing or making known the resulting TAM data to its clients or the general public," the TRO stated. In her ruling, the judge also said that although AGB Nielsen managing director Maya Reporma has explained that the alleged tampering happened only in Bacolod, the integrity of the TAM data as a whole has been compromised. Gonzales said AGB Nielsen was not able to show that the allegedly tainted data would not cause ABS-CBN “grave and irreparable" injury. Last week, ABS-CBN sued AGB Nielsen for continuing to release its ratings data despite earlier questions on their reliability, and failing to keep the identities of representative households confidential. ABS-CBN’s suit is hinged on the statement of an unnamed informant who said he was hired by a third party to influence the viewing preferences of representative households in Bacolod. GMA Network, which was named by ABS-CBN in a radio report as that third party, has vehemently denied tampering with the ratings process. It also said it will sue ABS-CBN for allegedly libelous statements in the radio report. - GMANews.TV (GMANews.TV is the official website of GMA News and Public Affairs, a unit of GMA Network Inc.)