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The NDTV-WPP’s battle has taken a murkier turn.
On Monday, NDTV refuted WPP’s claim that its lawyers had approached the latter for a settlement.
Global advertising and communication firm WPP had earlier said that NDTV’s lawyers had approached it for a settlement and had revealed an email written by NDTV CEO Vikram Chandra on July 27 to Kantar Media CEO Eric Salama. WPP said the email by Chandra had talked about a meeting “in good faith to resolve our differences”.
NDTV denied its lawyers had approached for settlement after the lawsuit was filed and communicated. In a statement, the broadcaster said: “The email from NDTV CEO, Vikram Chandra, which WPP has selectively quoted from, was in fact the communication of the lawsuit to Nielsen and Kantar. It was a lengthy mail containing details of the suit, the cause for damages and the reason why it was filed in the US. As is routine in such communications, it also contained an invitation to talk, together with the attached lawsuit.”
NDTV said that it had first raised the issue eight years ago when it was the undisputed No 1, according to TAM. The statement added that for several months in this year, it had worked closely with the highest levels of Nielsen and Kantar as they investigated their own TAM ratings system in India.
The broadcaster said that it first made a threat of legal action on June 4 when it felt there was no other way to secure real change in the TAM system. “NDTV has no desire to get into a prolonged trial by media with WPP. We would now urge WPP to avoid further obfuscation of the real issue and to turn its attention to the basic facts contained in the lawsuit,” the broadcaster stated.
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On Saturday, WPP in its statement had said that it had termed NDTV’s lawsuit as hypothetical as there was no meaningful attempt to serve the lawsuit. It said that it considers the “lawsuit as an inappropriate lawsuit and its purpose is to provoke a settlement, not a real airing of the facts”. It had also said that its dismissal application was based not only on jurisdiction but on lack of a proper claim. The global advertising and media company, in its statement, said that it was not right for NDTV to blame its poor financial performance on TAM data.
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