Libel Suit ng GMA 7 Laban sa ABS-CBN, Diversionary Tactic Lamang!

January 3, 2008

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ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. on Thursday said a P15 million libel suit filed by GMA Network against the Kapamilya Station is meant to divert attention away from the issue of TV ratings manipulation.

“We are disappointed but not surprised by GMA-7’s reactions to the discovery of TV ratings manipulation. It appears that they want to prevent the media from mentioning GMA 7 in connection with cheating in the ratings,” ABS-CBN spokesman Bong Osorio said in a statement.

“Let’s remember that the issue here is about having a clean TV ratings process, the reason we filed a civil case against AGB-Nielsen Media Research. Filing defamation charges against ABS-CBN diverts attention from the real issue. We are confident that the truth will come out,” he added.

He said several affidavits filed by Maya Reforma, AGB Nielsen Media Research General Manager, before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court identified GMA 7 as the broadcast network behind the efforts that compromised panel homes in Bacolod.

Osorio issued the statement after GMA Network sued ABS-CBN, its executives and talents, of allegedly accusing GMA of tampering metered households of research firm AGB Nielsen.

Included as respondents in the libel case were DZMM station manager Angelo Palmones, DZMM news manager Alona Magtalas, DZMM reporter Junrie Hidalgo, DZMM hosts Cristy Fermin and Jobert Sucaldito, Bandila Over-all-In-Charge of Production Luchi Cruz-Valdes, Bandila Executive Producer (EP) Boyet Agustin, Legal Department Head Atty. Maximilian Uy, Bandila host Korina Sanchez, Entertainment Live Over-all-In-Charge of Production Malou Santos and Luis Andrada, Entertainment Live EP Lani Gutierrez, Entertainment Live and The Buzz headwriter Romer Gonzales, The Buzz EP Nancy Yabut, and The Buzz headwriter Ian Reyno.

In a statement, GMA Network said that “nowhere in Ms. Reforma’s affidavit submitted in court did she accuse or state that GMA-7 cheated in the ratings nor was it involved in the ‘ratings manipulation’ in Bacolod City…”

“In reckless disregard of truth, with malice and in bad faith, and with obvious intent to defame and ridicule GMA Network before the public, ABS-CBN distorted, spliced off, and suppressed the accurate and complete statements of Ms. Reforma,” GMA Network said.

Copies of Reforma’s affidavits filed before the QCRTC, however, revealed that AGB Nielsen found 79 among 532 AGB Nielsen metered homes in six cities were exposed to “activities” of GMA Network.

She also told the court that AGB Nielsen has replaced the 79 tampered homes from its television audience measurement panel. “We are also considering removing Iloilo as a sampling point,” she added.

ABS-CBN earlier sued AGB Nielsen Media Research Philippines after receiving reports that a third party was contacting and bribing metered households in Bacolod City in an effort to influence the TV ratings. The court later ordered AGB Nielsen to stop gathering and releasing data on nationwide TV ratings for 20 days.

79 tampered homes

In separate affidavits, Reforma said the 79 panel homes were persuaded to watch GMA shows in exchange for monthly prizes including P500 in cash, groceries, umbrellas, pens and medicine.

“Panel homes who declare themselves to be watching ABS-CBN are asked to become a member of the GMA Kapuso viewers in order to receive a monthly supply of groceries and P500,” she said, describing one of the activities. 

She added that of the 79 homes, 63 homes were visited once while 16 were visited twice or more times.

She said statistical tests conducted by AGB Nielsen showed that 16 of the 79 homes “showed a significant change to favor GMA in its viewing behavior.”

She noted, however, that the evidence obtained by AGB Nielsen “strongly indicates that the tampering was confined to Bacolod and for the period from July to September 2007.”

She said the research firm reprocessed all the original data it gathered from the television audience measurement panel while excluding the tampered households contacted by GMA Network. “Based on our evaluation, AGB Nielsen found that viewing data did not significantly change even after the exclusion of the contacted panels from the original data,” she said.

She said, however, that the exclusion of 12 tampered homes in Cebu “caused some days to expected drop for GMA [ratings] but not at the expense of ABS-CBN which remained the same.”

She said the firm also commissioned a coincidental survey involving thousands of survey respondents in various cities and provinces. “The coincidental survey confirmed that viewing trends/patterns were consistent with panel data in respect to the GMA, ABS and Overall viewing levels,” she said.

Vivian Tin, ABS-CBN Research and Business Analysis chief, said that from a sampling standpoint, 79 tampered homes from 532 homes in six cities is significant.

“That’s about 14.8 percent of the 532 homes. [AGB Nielsen] says that it has no impact on the data. I don’t think they have grounds to say that until they replace all those homes and rerun and they can only do that after checking the entire panel,” she said.

She also pointed out that a one percent difference in the ratings is significant because of the size of the broadcasting business. “A small percent is a big amount of money so it’s very hard to make judgment on what is big or what is small,” she added.

She said the breach also opens up questions about current and future effects of tampering. “Once your homes are identified, you don’t know where and when they are going be visited. It’s not only a current breach, there’s going to be a continuing breach because the identity is already out.” she said.

“So the important thing is to clean, identify everyone in the national panel that was breached and clean the panel homes,” she added.

Posted in NUTAM, Ratings