Storyboard: Events Industry eyes robust growth ahead

In this episode of CNBC-TV18's Storyboard

The credibility of TV ratings in question as NDTV sues Nielsen on TAM data.

NDTV has sued Nielsen and a host of other companies that own and operate TAM in India. They have claimed damages to the tune of over USD 1.3 billion on charges of fraud, corruption and negligence. The case has been filed in the New York State Supreme Court claiming violations of the US law - Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

The most damaging charge by NDTV is the fact that TAM employees were willing to tamper with people meter data and manipulate ratings in return for money. Companies including TAM, The Nielsen Company; Kantar Media Research, WPP, JWT and IMRB have been named as defendants.

Some individuals including David Calhoun the global CEO of the Nielsen Company have also been named. When contacted an NDTV spokesperson said "We confirm we have filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of New York State because the matter is sub judice, we have no further comments at this time."

"TAM India, a 50:50 Joint venture between Kantar Media and Nielsen doesn't comment on any litigation,” TAM spokesperson said. But WPP which has been named as a defendant along with some of its subsidiaries on August 2nd said "We believe that any "publicized" lawsuit has absolutely no merit whatsoever, although as of last night our advisors could not find it"

This means that as of Thursday WPP had not been served and claimed no knowledge that this litigation had been filed. No matter what the legal outcome or merits of the case it has put the spotlight on the TV ratings that TAM provides. This rating system is the only industry standard to gauge viewership and allocate TV ad spends.

Event management industry to be worth Rs 4500 crore by next year:

Last August on Storyboard, the Events and Entertainment Management Association which represents 102 companies had said it was looking to streamline the sector. It was looking to create processes to deal with problems of overlapping tax laws, a limited talent pool and inadequate infrastructure. This week the industry body released a white paper.  CNBC-TV18’s Pavni Mittal reported that the sector is growing at 16%.

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