In the ongoing legal tussle with New Delhi Television (NDTV), the global advertising and marketing group WPP has moved the New York Supreme Court to dismiss the broadcaster’s complaint.
NDTV had earlier accused TAM, which is a joint venture between Nielsen and WPP-owned Kantar India, of manipulation of viewership data.
In its motion before the New York Supreme Court, WPP said, “This case is nothing more than a desperate attempt by the plaintiff, a television station in New Delhi, India, to drum up media coverage in India to divert attention from the real reasons its programs have had low audience ratings and its financial performance has been abysmal for five years.”
It added that the television company has, “crossed the globe and come to New York State Supreme Court to complain about an Indian company, TAM, and how it measures the ratings of television programs in India. New Delhi TV has filed its completely baseless and misdirected claims in a 193-page Complaint, containing 654 paragraphs and 42 causes of action against 32 irrelevant parties, including the Moving Defendants.”
The petition stated that the complaint should be dismissed for insufficient service and said that this court lacks jurisdiction over Kantar India (owned by WPP) which it said was an Indian company with no presence in the US or New York.